In a Class Above
by BestNotes
Summary: Spyro and Cynder find themselves in a very unfamiliar environment when Warfang is transformed into an academy for gifted dragons. New friends, fierce rivals, and deadly enemies await the duo as they are thrust into a new life full of unexpected drama!
1. Pilot

**Preface: So, I was feeling particularly bored and rather sick with a cold when I decided upon the idea of an episode-style drama story in the Legend of Spyro universe. I'm hoping that everyone will enjoy the episodes but in order for this new series to work, I will need a **_**lot**_** of original character dragons. Also, if you have an episode idea as the series progresses, feel free to submit. **

**Disclaimer: The following is a work of fantasy based on The Legend of Spyro series, copyright Activision Blizzard. All fictional content is intended to enhance your reading experience. In addition, the following work is rated M due to graphic violence, sex, sexuality, alcohol use, and coarse language.**

_**In a Class Above**_

**Created by Alex "BestNotes" Besen**

**PILOT EPISODE**

**Written & Edited by BestNotes**

**Additional Contributions by Vlad Johnson (Gennady) & Vanessa Stein (Kaiser)**

The crisp green grass felt serene against his purple paws. A gentle breeze lapsed against his shimmering scales, cooling his body and refreshing his entire system. Spyro deeply inhaled, sending fresh oxygen racing around his body. He turned to Cynder on his right, a broad, goofy smile etched on his face. "Can you believe this? We did this!" He chirped excitedly.

"I know Spyro, I was there, remember?" Cynder chuckled somewhat sarcastically. In truth, she was beyond amazed that the legendary dragon had pulled the world back together when it had already fractured at its seams and was crumbling to bits and pieces. She had expected the duel with Malefor to be the last step in her short life but Spyro had changed all of that. Just thinking of the possibilities in the future made her giddy. She could experience a _real_ adolescent life, hang out with Spyro, learn from the guardians, hang out with Spyro…

_Just as soon as he comes to his senses and his hormones kick in… he's mine_. She thought with a mischievous grin. Spyro noticed her devious smile and bumped her playfully with his hips.

"What's on your mind?" Cynder blushed slightly, thanking the ancestors for her black scales. She snapped back to her senses.

"I-I was just thinking we should get going back to Warfang. I'm sure everyone's worried sick about us." She fibbed.

"I like that idea." Spyro acknowledged with a hearty yawn. "I'm so tired I think I could nap for three years!" Cynder's eyes widened before the two dragons burst into laughter.

At last their days of fighting were behind them.

**Warfang Temple**

"My hypothesis is perfectly valid!" Volteer protested with an angry huff. The lightning guardian was clearly off on another of his rants as several figures in the room merely rolled their eyes. "With the right tools, I can create a device that can search the air waves for electrical charges generated by lightning dragons!" He paused and added rather pointedly, "We could find the dragon colonies Ignitus had deemed lost so long ago!"

"I'm sure my people would be willing to use our falcons to assist you all." Hunter the cheetah offered, shaking his head at the lightning guardian's antics. "It's the least we can do after Spyro and Cynder saved us."

"It would be a misuse of epoch and vigor!" Volteer countered. "These dragons are positively clueless as to the happenings of the outside world as they hide from Malefor's forces! Your falcons will most certainly be incapable of locating them." He grunted.

"I'm afraid I agree with Volteer." Cyril, the bulky blue ice guardian expressed with a sigh. "An event like the end of the world is sure to unnerve whatever dragons are still scattered across Avalar. They have most likely fled deeper underground."

"But air moves from below to above," Volteer added rapidly. "Thus magical streams of energy such as electricity can easily be detected with the right paraphernalia."

"And how long do you think that will take?" Hunter inquired skeptically.

"No more that a few months provided we can obtain the materials fast enough!" Volteer stated confidently.

"I'm afraid I can't take that estimate at face value, old friend." Terrador verbalized with a chuckle. "Your past history shows you have not always been the best with time."

"Pish posh!" Volteer gawked. The conversation quickly quieted as the beats of wings registered in everyone's hearing range. They looked to the window as Spyro and Cynder landed in the conference room.

"Welcome back, Spyro, Cynder!" Hunter cheered. "Truly you have outdone yourselves and are living legends."

"Young ones, you have succeeded in doing the impossible and for that you have our eternal gratitude." Terrador congratulated as he gave them a thankful bow. The other two guardians followed suit. Terrador stiffened up and quickly changed the subject, "I take it Ignitus did not survive the journey?"

Spyro and Cynder looked guiltily at one another. "H-He sacrificed himself… for us." Cynder whispered. Spyro's eyes glazed over slightly at the memory of his fallen mentor.

"Let us honor his legacy then with silent meditation." Cyril proclaimed. The room lapsed into stillness for several minutes. Cyril then opened his eyes and stated, "We shall proclaim this day to be a memorial day for those who gave their lives to end Malefor's tyrannical reign."

"Agreed." Terrador grunted. Silent nods ensued before the room lapsed into an incredibly awkward silence. Spyro yawned and sat upon his haunches. Cynder, equally tired, plopped down next to the purple dragon and rested her head on his shoulders. Spyro grinned in a goofy manner once again.

"So," Cynder piped up, her tail swishing back and forth with curiosity, "what were you guys talking about before we got here?"

"Volteer has reason to suspect that there are colonies of dragons hidden throughout Avalar." Hunter summed up quickly. Spyro's eyes widened. He had always thought that the small group of dragons in the room was the end of the once-proud race thanks to Malefor. The thought that not just one group, but many groups of dragons survived the war suddenly made him giddy with excitement.

"Where are they?" He blurted out without thinking. All eyes in the room shifted to him. "T-The dragons, I mean." He mumbled.

"That's the quandary we find ourselves in." Volteer clamored.

"Inside voice, please Volteer!" Terrador grunted, clutching his throbbing temple. "My head still aches from the tremors as the world broke apart."

"My apologies." Volteer mumbled. He quickly changed subjects: "I have theorized that with the right parts I can create a contraption to read lightning dragons' electrical charges. Hence, we can locate the colonies!" He explained rapidly.

"Really? That's awesome!" Cynder cheered. "When can we start building?" She inquired eagerly.

"Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure, really. My hope is to have it up and running in the next few months…"

**One Year Later…**

Spyro awoke with a start and howled in pain. His left hind leg convulsed rapidly as the Charlie Horse awkwardly worked its way through his system. Spyro swore loudly as he tried to stretch his leg out to get the cramp away. It took a solid 30 seconds but the purple dragon finally got the kink out of his muscle. He sighed in relief. He turned to look out his window and could see the sun peeking out over the horizon. Suddenly, a memory popped into his head and he got to his feet. "How could I forget about that?" Spyro chuckled as he made for the door. "I better go surprise her."

A lot had changed in the last year. Spyro had grown far more muscular and began to burn off his baby fat that had stuck around since his swamp days thanks to a daily workout regiment he did with Cynder. Likewise, the black dragoness had become much leaner; her body was well toned and she had noticeable curves in her underbelly and hips. Spyro and Cynder flirted constantly with one another, as they were the only companions they had their own age.

Volteer constructed the machine rather quickly with the help of the moles, but Terrador made a suggestion that turned a simple project into something far more complicated…

"_An academy for gifted dragons." Terrador proudly stated. "We can convert the city into a grand university to better train the new generation of dragons." He paused and thought to himself, and then proclaimed, "We could even find and train a replacement for Ignitus."_

"_I don't know," Hunter mumbled skeptically. "Personally I think Spyro fits the bill rather nicely. Why go to such great lengths for educating young dragons? I would think that their elders would teach them while they were in hiding."_

"_Rubbish!" Cyril huffed. "Our young dragons have known nothing of fighting and our grand lineage, only of hiding from Malefor. As guardians, it is our duty to raise and train the next generation of dragon society." He boldly avowed as he puffed his chest out._

"_We could recruit professors from all species." Volteer suggested. "Elder dragons can teach main courses like combat and dragon history but other species can teach subjects like math and scripture." He turned to Hunter. "You are quite knowledgeable of the lay of Avalar. Perhaps you would like to teach a class on the continent's many flora and fauna?"_

"_A professor… me?" Hunter seemed taken aback by the offering. "It would be a great honor." He remarked._

"_Splendid; we could begin construction immediately." Terrador enthusiastically declared. "We would have the academy up and running within the year."_

"_But shouldn't we have a way to test it?" Hunter added. "Ignitus once said he who flies blind flies foolishly."_

"_We already have two prime students; Spyro and Cynder." Terrador acknowledged. "Perhaps the first class of dragons for the academy shall come from their age group."_

And so the construction began. Spyro and Terrador would carve and sculpt massive boulders and stones using their earth powers so that the cheetahs and moles could begin assembling the structures to form the new academy. Cynder utilized her power over the shadows to transport materials easily over long distances. The work was tiring, but helped Spyro and Cynder to develop their muscles and hone their elemental skills even more than when fighting off Malefor's armies.

The temple was transformed into a lavish, gigantic building. It had dormitories, kitchens, classrooms, a large gymnasium, and a coliseum in back for combat. "Now all that's left to do is fill it with students." Volteer remarked. That had been three days ago. Volteer finally generated the necessary power to jump-start his machine the previous day and it began to scan the airwaves.

All these thoughts flooded Spyro's mind as he trotted down the corridor to Cynder's room. He poked his head in and noticed the black dragoness was still slumbering peacefully. _But not for long_, Spyro thought with a snicker. Spyro turned to see a large wool carped in front of the pile of cushions comprising Cynder's bed. _Perfect_, he thought as he slowly crept into the room.

He began to furiously rub his paws against the carpet, generating large amounts of static electricity. _This ought to be quite shocking for Cynder_, Spyro thought to himself. He was so engrossed in his prank he did not notice that the black dragoness was already wide awake and had slipped into the shadows. She resurfaced behind Spyro and smiled devilishly before pouncing.

"What the… AHHH!" Spyro hollered as Cynder pinned him to the ground. "How did you…?" He gasped in surprise as Cynder got off of him, laughing hysterically.

"I sensed your movement in the wind, dummy." She teased.

"Damn it; I had this so well planned out." Spyro sighed in defeat. "Anyway, happy sixteenth hatch day." He exclaimed.

"Awww… you're so sweet." She replied, licking his muzzle. Spyro turned as red as a tomato. Spyro simply sighed in content and flopped down on Cynder's cushions. The black dragoness squeezed herself next to him.

"Do you think things are still going to be like this once the other dragons come?" He wondered out loud.

"What do you mean?" Cynder raised her eyebrow in confusion.

"I'm talking about us. I've really enjoyed the last year with you." He explained. "I don't want things to change with us. I like being… close to you." He continued, struggling to find the right words.

"Of course things will be the same." Cynder shrugged off the question. A tense silence hung in the air. "And I'll prove it to you." She leaned in and kissed him square on the lips. At first Spyro flinched in surprise but suddenly his muscles all relaxed and he let the sensation overtake him. He felt something slimy brush against his lips and realized that it was Cynder's tongue.

His own tongue finally slid out and glided against hers and they both shivered from the sensation. Spyro leaned forward, pressing Cynder onto her back with him on top. He began to rub her breast scales with his left paw as their tongues continued wrestling one another.

"IT'S WORKING! IT'S WORKING!" The two young dragon's eyes widened as Volteer sprinted into the room. "I've got… oh my!" The lightning guardian stopped in shock as he caught Spyro and Cynder in mid kiss. His cheeks flushed and he began profusely mumbling apologies.

"N-No, it's okay, really." Cynder reassured. She got to her feet and stretched herself out. Spyro, also blushing equally as bad, got to his feet as well. "So you were able to detect dragons after all?"

"I found four whole colonies! I've got the coordinates on parchment in the staff lounge! This is amazing, fantastic, extraordinary, unbelievable…" Spyro pressed a paw to Volteer's muzzle as an indication that the lightning guardian was ranting once again.

"This is great news, Volteer." Cynder exclaimed. "So how are you going to contact the dragons?"

"I've already sent out requests via falcon for students and teachers. We should have responses pretty soon. There's a colony to the north in the Vojislav Mountains, one to the east in the Weslender Plains, one to the south in the Fallujah Desert, and one to the west on the Kyzir Plateau!" He explained. "Come, come, we must celebrate this achievement!"

**Vojislav Mountains**

"Gennady! You're not going to believe this!" A short, stubby brass colored earth dragon with a pudgy round stout sprinted through a dimly lit cave. He skidded to a halt in front of a bed of straw and quickly caught his breath. A large, azure ice dragon lifted his muscular neck and stared at the brass dragon. He had fierce blue eyes and three sets of jagged horns protruding from his large head.

"Kaiser you asshole; I was in the middle of the nap of the century." Gennady hissed in frustration. A huge paw appeared out of nowhere and smacked Kaiser upside the head. The stubby dragon whimpered.

"I-I'm sorry boss, but it's really important." Kaiser pleaded.

"What?" Gennady growled in frustration.

"We're going to Warfang… you and I and some of the others. They want us to go to school at some academy." Kaiser explained. Gennady's eyes widened in interest.

"Warfang? But I thought Malefor was leveling the place." He sneered.

"Apparently not. Malefor's dead!" Kaiser exclaimed. "Some other purple dragon did him in!"

"No fuckin' way!" Gennady gawked in astonishment. "You mean to tell me we got _another_ purple to deal with?"

"This one's different." Kaiser remarked. "He defeated Cynder, Gaul, _and_ Malefor. He must be one helluva strong dragon." He paused and then added with a confident smirk, "And he's our age. He's gonna attend the academy also."

"Well, well," Gennady grinned bullishly, "that _is_ some interesting news. We're going to have to make it a point to have a meet and greet with this purple dragon." Kaiser tilted his head in confusion. "Don't you get it, dip shit? School means lots of dragons which means the chance to form up a new gang."

"Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeah." Kaiser acknowledged.

"Think about it. We could be _kings_ of that academy. We'd have girls fawning over us and little runts running around doing our bidding. Plus, we can finally get out of the damn caves. I'm sick of living in caves. We ain't bears, that's for sure." Gennady snorted.

"Sweetness!" Kaiser grinned in a demonic fashion. "We could finally be somebodies!" Once again Gennady's large paw struck him across the forehead and he shirked.

"You twit; _I'm_ gonna be the somebody. You're just the sombeody's right-hand drake… got it?" Kaiser nodded his head vigorously. He certainly didn't want to get on Gennady's bad side.

**Kyzir Plateau**

"School? Us?" A lime green dragoness with bulky curves and a bright yellow underbelly gasped in astonishment. She had a set of long, sharp horns protruding from her head and a thick, clubbed tail dragging along the ground. "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely." A turquoise dragoness chirped. She had a long and slim figure and walked with a graceful stride. She wore a diamond-shaped pendant around her neck and had two sets of aqua horns arching behind her head. Her long, narrow tail ended in a curved spade. "They're starting an academy in Warfang and _we_ get to be a part of it."

"Anything beats another year in these nasty caves." A third dragoness snorted. This one was a bright yellow with orange lightning bolts lining her hide. She had two strait horns pointing out from hear head and a long, defined snout. "All this dark murkiness is ruining my complexion."

"Please, Thundra," The turquoise dragoness mused, "Everyone knows that there isn't a single good peace of meat around here." She smiled devilishly. "I hear the purple who beat Malefor will be there. I bet he's worth a shot."

"Give me a break, Aqua," Thundra scoffed. "You stand _no_ chance with the purple dragon. Everyone knows you don't have the looks to get a guy in bed with you."

"The only thing guys look for is a pretty face and some nice curves." The lime green dragoness taunted. "And I've got you beat there." She smiled victoriously.

"You're such a bitch sometimes, Terra." Aqua sneered. "The only reason you've got an ass worth looking at is cause you're an earth dragon."

"Wanna bet?" Terra growled.

"Yeah, I do." Aqua flashed a dark grin. "First one to seduce the purple gets the loser as a servant for an entire week."

"Deal!" Terra challenged with a flick of her clubbed tail. She turned to Thundra. "You in?"

"No thanks. I'll skip slutfest and try going after a guy I have a chance with." She snorted.

"Are you saying neither of us can snag him?" Aqua growled.

"Yeah; I heard a rumor he's _real_ close to Cynder." Thundra scoffed.

"_CYNDER_? The Terror of the Skies? Malefor's general? Are you screwing with us?" Terra gawked.

"Not a chance," Thundra exclaimed. "He saved her from Malefor's darkness and now the two are probably mates."

"Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" Aqua suggested with another dark, seductive grin.


	2. Episode 1

_**In a Class Above**_

_**EPISODE ONE: Close Encounters of the Magical Kind**_

_**Writing & Editing **_

_BestNotes_

_**Also Contributing**_

_R.B. Zadonis (Data), & Vlad Johnson (Gennady)_

_**Guest Contributing**_

"_Nightmare King" (Zuwayy) & Jon Westman (Sebastian)_

_**Episode Created by BestNotes & R.B. Zadonis**_

**Weslender Plains**

"S-School? Like, with other dragons?" A yellow-orange dragoness gawked in surprise. "But I c-can't go around other dragons. You know they hate me, Data." She wore a cute red bow around her red speckled neck. She also had a red serrated tail blade that was incredibly intimidating. The dragon she spoke to was tapping his foot impatiently.

"Listen, Masters; I'm not here to make the decision for you." Data scolded with a concerned frown. The wind dragon was an electric blue with spots resembling binary code (ones and zeroes) lining his hide. He had a set of brown horns arching back. Unlike most dragons, Data had brown hair slicked back as opposed to back spines. He also had an orb shaped tail which could deliver deadly knock out blows in close combat.

Marion Masters bit her lip in frustration. Data shook his head. "You can't let other dragons get to you, girl." Data encouraged. "You're incredibly bright… brilliant, I'd say. Dragons with your IQ have a tendency to go _very_ far. This academy is exactly what you need. You can't let something like a little bullying trouble scare you off from this once in a lifetime opportunity."

"But…" Masters prepared to retort. Data shook his head and held up a paw signaling the fire dragon to shut up. She pouted.

"But nothing, Masters." Data retorted. "You'll go. I'll go. We'll have a good time. End of story." He paused, and then added, "Maybe you'll meet someone as… _quirky_ as you and you can mate." Masters's eyes widened at Data's vulgar comment.

"How can you possibly talk about sex right now?" Masters gawked. "Wait… you've never even _done_ it with _anyone_. Why would you be lecturing me about finding the right mate?"

"I'm just concerned from you. Speaking as a good friend… as your _only_ friend," Masters glared at Data as he revealed the sad-but-true fact, "you _need_ this. Don't let the opportunity pass you by."

"You really think this will be good for me?" Masters inquired skeptically. "That I can get something out of this?"

"You want to be exceptional right?" Data fired back with his own question.

"O-Of course I do. I need to be the best fire dragoness I can be." She replied, almost insulted with the question.

"Then this academy will help with that." After some consideration, he also whispered, "Between you and me, the purple dragon that beat Malefor will be there. You want exception, get him to show you some tricks."

"Well, I suppose," Masters mumbled her less than enthusiastic reply. "If you're going to be there too…"

"Well if it isn't Data and the little red runt." A loud voice called out. "Whatever are you both talking about?" A blue green earth dragon trotted up to Data and Masters, a smug look etched on his face. He had a black underbelly, one set of black horns, and a drill shaped tail spade. Masters swore to herself.

"What do you want, Sebastian?" She groaned. Of all the teenage dragons in Westlender Plains, Sebastian was probably the biggest asshole around. He thought he was Draco's gift to the world of dragons.

"I just wanted to congratulate you both on your acceptance to the academy." He paused and grinned, "Or rather, to congratulate _one _of you." He turned to Masters with a confident sneer. "Honestly, I didn't know they were taking _runts_ at this place. Okay, who'd you bribe to let you in?"

"I didn't _bribe_ anyone, you jerk." She snorted. "I'm going there because I'm a _good_ student. I'm going to go there and I'm going to show you that I'm just as much of a dragon as you are." She challenged, baring her fangs for the earth dragon to see. Sebastian through his back and roared with laughter.

"That's really good, Masters. For a second you almost sounded convincing." He mused. "Next time though, you should place that silly tail blade of yours against me neck. That ought to really send some shivers up my spine." Suddenly, without warning, he grabbed Masters's tail and poked the blade against his hard neck scales.

"Masters!" Data screamed in shock. "You can't let him do that to you." Masters stood with wide eyes as Sebastian fiddled with the tail blade in the palm of his paw.

"Yes, go on, Masters," Sebastian mocked in a high squeaky voice, poorly imitating Data, "do something. You can't let Sebastian treat you like that." He threw her tail to the ground and snorted. "You're pathetic."

"I… I…" Masters stammered, struggling to come up with some response, but her brain was unable to fathom anything to put the large earth dragon in his place. She lowered her head in defeat and slinked behind Data. Data looked at Masters in confusion and then to Sebastian.

"Why don't you just leave us alone? Don't you have some puppy you could be killing or little hatchling you could be raping?" Sebastian's eyes widened before narrowing in contempt. He leaned in close to Data and hissed venomously at him. He then turned and stomped off angrily. Data turned to Masters with a frown on his face. "Nothing; you couldn't say anything? I can't fight all your battles for you." He warned. But Masters clearly did not catch his statements, as her eyes filled with tears and her entire physique slumped.

"No, he's right! I am pathetic. I'm a fucking loser and there's no way I can survive at this dumb academy!" She sobbed. She quickly bolted from the room, running as fast as her legs would carry her, crying hysterically.

"Masters!" Data cried out. He sighed and shook his head. "Why do you have to do this?"

**Fallujah Desert**

"I'm telling you, Jada, this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime!" An orange fire dragon clamored excitedly. His cat-like features were betraying the sense of excitement as he tapped his flame-tipped tail against the ground in impatience. "An entire school full of dragons just like us! It's like a dream come true."

The dark gray and violet wind dragon standing opposite him had a goofy smile on his face and simply shook his head. "It is very much like you to rush head first into situations without thinking things clearly through, my friend." Jadallah Zuwayy responded with a callous grin. "Zsnafrid, you must take caution and guard yourself against overconfidence."

Zsnafrid flashed Zuwayy his trademark toothy grin. "You think too much, Jada." He taunted. "We have but one life to live and I for one plan to live it to the fullest. This is an adventure that no dragon would pass on. An opportunity to be associated with legends like the purple." Zsnafrid sauntered up to his friend. "I know you, Jada. Your curiosity… it is tickled. You are just as curious about this academy as I am."

"That may be true," Zuwayy shoved the orange dragon away. "But at least I have the sensibility to realize a potentially stressful situation. We will need to work our tails off if we wish to succeed. Think of the future going to this academy can offer us."

"See? There you again with your thinking." Zsnafrid exclaimed, wagging a talon in mock disappointment. "The best thoughts are those that you have on the fly, Jada."

"My uncle Rangif used to say that too. He got eaten by a Death Hound when I was three." Zuwayy scoffed. "I would never forgive myself if you suffered the same fate."

"I will do know such thing." Zsnafrid promised. "I can take care of myself, Jada. You'll see."

**Warfang Academy**

"We need a special class for training the candidates for fire guardian." Terrador growled as he resulted through a stack of files of dragons to attend the new academy. "And to make this class work, we'll need a very different sort of professor."

"What do you have in mind, exactly?" Cyril huffed. He was bitter that the earth guardian had taken command of the project and not consulted him on any matters up to this point. "One of the elders from the colonies?"

"An elf."

"Are you bloody _mental_? You know that elves cannot control magic in the same way dragons can!" Cyril gasped in shock. "They are very dangerous creatures and _incredibly_ duplicitous."

"I happened to know an elf. A very good scholar who taught at the most prestigious of elf schools in the world." Terrador fired back. "He was recently retired because the head of the school disliked his teaching methods." He paused and cracked a smile. "He seems perfect for the job."

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"What in the-?" Cyril tried to make sense of what was happening but Terrador swung the door wide open. Cyril's jaw nearly hit the floor as he found himself staring directly into the purple eyes of the strangest elf he had ever met. His purple hair was slicked back and his goatee of the same color neatly trimmed. He wore a slightly dirty suit navy suit jacket with a blue button-down shirt that was open necked. His khakis were frayed in places and the elf supported himself with an ornate cane that appeared to be made entirely of diamond.

"I figured you would not approve of this, so I took the liberty of contacting my colleague in advance." Terrador somewhat apologized to a wide-eyed Cyril.

"Dr. Yevgeny Darius Xraff," The elf announced as he hobbled toward Terrador. "Wow; the years have _not_ been kind to you. You look like you were used as a battery and then fought a golem." He paused for a moment. "Oh yeah, that did happen, didn't it?"

Terrador sighed. "Still as sultry as ever, Xraff?" Cyril's nostrils twitched and he fixated himself on the elf.

"Have you been _drinking_?" He gawked. Xraff ignored the question at first and produced a hip flask. He threw his head back and gulped down a mouthful of some unknown liquid.

"Only a smidge." Xraff chided as he limped directly in front of Terrador. "So what exactly is it that I'm going to do?"

"You're going to evaluate a group of potential fire guardians by being their professor in a class at our new academy." Terrador thrust a pile of parchment toward Xraff. Xraff flipped briefly through it.

"These all seem like lousy candidates." Xraff declared as he absentmindedly fiddled with his cane.

"How can you say that? You haven't even met them!" Cyril exclaimed in shock.

"The descriptions hide nothing." Xraff stated. "The chick's an anti-social depressed perfectionist who cracks under pressure." He tossed the first parchment off the stack. "The one with the stupid name uses false courage and bravado to win over others easily." He tossed the second parchment off the stack. "And the purple dragon is the obvious choice and yet you haven't selected him which can only mean… he's hiding something." Xraff surmised with a sly grin. "Correct?"

Cyril stared in awe at the elf and looked at Terrador, who had put on one of his emotionless "stone faces." "I see you continue to be as judgmental as when I first met you." He stated passively.

"What? I thought you _wanted_ me to judge them." Xraff teased. "Oh, you mean I have to judge them in person? Darn, I was kinda hoping to do this without the whole face-to-face thing." Terrador cracked another smile.

"You could do things your way. But then you would be stuck unemployed and bitter back in your hometown." Xraff rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I'll do it." He paused and looked at the scattered parchment. "Doesn't mean I can't have a little fun with this game though." He turned on a dime, his jacket fluttering, and limped out of the room. Cyril turned to Terrador once more with a look of extreme contempt.

"You've lost your sanity!" Cyril screamed in rage. "That elf is a crass, narcissistic, egomaniacal hack!"

"Which is why he's perfect for the job." Terrador snapped and left the room without leaving room for further discussion.

**Westlender Plains**

A dark gray dragoness with a hot pink underbelly and a half moon shaped tail blade sat twirling a dandelion in her talons when she heard sobbing noises. Intrigued, she tossed the weed aside and dashed around the corner of the cave. She came upon a yellow-orange dragoness wearing a bow choking back tears and squeezing herself into a corner. _That's a little odd._ The dragoness thought to herself. "HEY!" She cried out.

Masters jumped in surprise at the sight of the gray dragoness. "O-Oh my gosh. I didn't know there was anyone else here?"

"It's okay." The dragoness stated. "I'm Joule by the way. You know, like the type of energy. My parents said they named me that because I would always boundaroundthehouse causingallsorts oftrouble and…" Joule began to speak rapidly and Masters found it impossible to make out the words in the incoherent babble.

_Definitely a lightning dragon_. She thought.

"So what'stheproblem?" Joule fired out quickly. "I mean, you're kinda byyourself here justcrying in thecorner whichisnotreally normal foranydragoness to bedoing really and and thought maybeIcouldhelp you and…"

"Thanks, really, but I'm okay." Masters shrugged it off with a slight sniffle. "I just… needed some time to think, that's all."

"Yousure?" Joule cocked her head sideways in disbelief. "Cause if you'relooking for someonetotalkto I'd totallybewilling to. Youknow I reallylove talking. Somepeoplesay they haveareally hardtime understandingme but I just loveto talkalot. DoyouknowwhatImean?" Masters's head was suddenly pounding.

"Uh, yeah, I totally get you." Masters lied. Anything to get the lightning lips away. Joule gave her a friendly smile.

"Youseem like a pretty nice dragoness." She whispered before darting off like, well, a bolt of lightning. Masters let out a small chuckle.

"I wonder if she's going to the academy." She thought out loud.

"There you are!" Masters whirled around as Data ran up to her, struggling to catch his breath. "I've been looking all around the caves for you." He said, his voice brimming with worry. "Are you okay? You seemed really bad when you ran off."

"Yeah, I'm doing a bit better." Masters lied. In truth, she was hurting but she could not let anybody know about that.

"Why do you keep letting Sebastian treat you like that? You're stronger than this. You can't let him walk all over you." Data harshly professed.

"He's not walking all over me." Masters rebutted. "He's just looking for a rise out of me. If I keep acting like he's not getting to me, he'll eventually give up and go look for someone else to pick on."

"Why do I have such a hard time believe that thought process?" Data growled in frustration. "You have to learn to stand up for yourself at some point or this academy will tear you to pieces."

"I can look after myself, thank you." Masters huffed. "You should spend less time thinking about me and more time thinking about yourself." She suggested.

"Yeah, sure, push your only friend away." Data scoffed. "That seems like a real great idea." But she was already out of hearing range by the time he spoke up. He sighed and shook his head. "She's doomed."

**Warfang Academy**

The grass was crisp in the gardens and coated in cool morning dew. Spyro liked the feeling of blades of grass tickles his paws as he walked along. Cynder walked beside him, taking in the new atmosphere of Warfang. "I wish these mornings lasted forever." She whispered. "They're so placid." Spyro did not respond and Cynder looked at him with concern. "Alright; what's on your mind now?"

"I really don't believe you when you say that things are going to remain the same." Spyro muttered bitterly. "The fact is that things _won't_ be the same. All we've ever needed was each other. Now the guardians are throwing a bunch of other dragons at us and expecting us to somehow blend seamlessly in with them."

"You're making it sound harder than it has to be." Cynder chastised.

"Am I?" Spyro raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Like it or not, Cynder, we're different." He sounded very serious. "We're not like other dragons. I don't think we're meant to be around other dragons."

"That's ridiculous." Cynder huffed. She started to walk forward again but Spyro blocked her path.

"Cynder, think for a second. Do you _really_ think these dragons are going to trust _you_ when they learn who you are?" Cynder went wide-eyed. Spyro had always promised to avoid bringing up her past and now that he had broken that promise she was not sure what to say. "If we're going to be a couple, we're going to be scrutinized by every dragon student. Are you sure can live with that?" He paused and swallowed nervously, "Because I know I can't live with that."

"I think this is just anxiety talking, Spyro." Cynder tried to calm him down but the purple dragon seemed to have none of it.

"It's not nerves, it's a legitimate concern." Spyro snorted, slightly peeved by the dragoness's nonchalant attitude. "Everyone's going to have expectations for us. I can't bear to think of what will happen if I can't meet those expectations."

"Spyro, will you just relax?" Cynder pleaded. "Nobody's going to treat you any different because you're a purple." She firmly stated. "And if they do, then they just won't be your friend. A real friend won't care whether you're black, white, purple, or polka-dotted because it's what's on the inside that counts." She pointed with her tail blade to Spyro's chest where his heart was beating rapidly as his nerves were slowly fraying his system.

"I-I suppose you have a point." He stammered. "Still, I can't help but be a little paranoid."

"That's called the jitters and you'll get over them." She chuckled.

"But how are you so calm? You've got a lot more on the line here." Spyro noted. Cynder shrugged.

"Who said I was calm?" She mused. "Sometimes you just have to fake it to make it." She exclaimed with a wink. "I must be a pretty good actress then, huh?"

"You…" Spyro tried to come up with a rebuke but a good one evaded him. He sighed and shook his head before cracking a smile. "Honestly Cynder, I don't know how I put up with you sometimes." He teased.

"But I do." She joked as she wiggled her hips flirtatiously. She started meandering her way back toward the main academy building leaving Spyro standing in the open with a dumbstruck expression on his face.

_Smooth, Spyro, real smooth._

**The Next Day…**

The students and teachers arrived in droves and quickly made their ways to their rooms to begin unpacking and settling in. Spyro and Cynder spent the morning helping the guardians with some last second items. They both noted that Cyril and Terrador seemed to be treating each other in a hostile fashion. "Do you think there was some sort of altercation yesterday?" Cynder worried.

"I hope not." Spyro whispered. Terrador's large form appeared before Spyro and Cynder.

"There is going to be an introduction assembly in ten minutes. Don't be late." He ordered. The two dragons nodded and watched the earth guardian stomp quickly out of the room. Cyril came up to them next.

"I must warn you both to watch out for the elfish professor. Terrador foolishly recruited the nuisance and he will make your lives miserable if you have him." Cyril darkly cautioned before he too stomped angrily out of the room. Suddenly the doors to the classroom opened and a bulky azure ice dragon walked in.

"Well, well, well, I'm surprised." Gennady whistled. "Not even a day into school and we've got our first make out session in the abandoned classroom." He looked at Spyro with mock surprise. "And it's a purple and _black_ of all pairs? How rich!"

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Cynder snorted. "Who do think you are coming in here talking to two of your peers like that?"

"I think I'm the guy who just found a purple dragon and the Terror of the Skies alone together in an empty classroom." Gennady laughed. "And I just did the math from there."

"We're not…" Spyro stammered, his cheeks flushing red.

"How he blushes!" Gennady scoffed. "Oh this is such a juicy piece of gossip. Getting to the top here is going to be a breeze with stupid stuff like this happening all the time." The ice dragon failed to notice that Cynder had quickly darted up to him and he suddenly jumped back in surprise at her fierce gaze.

"I'll ask again, what do you think you're doing?" She hissed acidly.

"Just taking in the sights." Gennady sneered as he shoved Cynder to the side. Now it was Spyro's turn to get angry.

"Hey, leave your claws off her!" He hotly proclaimed.

"Oh ho! So there _is_ something going on here?" Gennady laughed. The azure ice dragon stepped back. "I'm so sorry to have walked in on you two. But now I must take me leave." Gennady turned on a dime and marched out of the room rather quickly.

"See?" Spyro snorted. "I told you that these other dragons would be trouble! The _first_ one we meet thinks we were in here having sex and now he's going to convince the entire school that actually did happen!" The purple dragon groaned. "You should have listened to me!" He fired at Cynder angrily.

"Take a chill pill, Spyro." Cynder proclaimed smarmily yet softly. "He's one stupid dragon who obviously isn't too good with other people. I doubt he could do any real damage."

"You'll have to excuse me when I say that I'm not too confident with your judgment." Spyro bitterly remarked. "Come on, we better go to that assembly."

**Meanwhile…**

"That's right. I saw them there together." Gennady whispered to Sebastian, the dragon next to him. "I'll bet my life's savings they're a thing."

"Well, isn't _that_ a juicy little secret? I didn't know the purple had a soft spot for bad girls." Sebastian sneered. "I think we could grow to be great friends, Gennady."

"Likewise, Bastion." Gennady exclaimed with a toothy grin. "We're gonna drop some bombshells at this school, just wait." The both sniggered with excitement. Today would be an eventful day indeed.

**If you enjoyed the chapter or have any feedback, please review and/or favorite the story! Your support is highly appreciated!**


	3. Episode 2

**Warfang Academy – Auditorium Backstage**

"You _told_ them I was an _elf_?" Yevgeny Darius Xraff gawked. "You _idiot_."

"How exactly was I being idiotic? The elf thing was your idea in the first place, Dr. Xraff." Terrador growled in a sultry tone. He was clearly stressed and in no mood to deal with the mysterious professor's antics. "If they found out you were a wizard they'd have you executed like the rest of your kind."

"Yeah, but now that you _told_ them I'm an elf I have to behave all elf-like." Xraff snarled. "Next I'm going to have to done a stupid tunic and go around playing ocarinas and wielding master swords." He shook his head. "It's much better to let them figure things out for themselves, otherwise it just gives way to suspicions."

"Just as long as you stay on Cyril's good side I can guarantee nobody will be prodding or poking into your background." Terrador cautioned as he bit his lower lip.

"Wait, you mean Icicle _has_ a good side? The guy acts like he's got a boot permanently shoved up his…"

"Terrador," Cyril's voice called out through the backstage. "Where are you? We must get things started."

"Of course, of course," Terrador responded, clearly flummoxed. He turned to Xraff. "This is the only warning I'll give you. I've staked my _guardianship_ on you being able to train the fire candidates. Screw this up and I will not hesitate to hunt you down." Xraff merely rolled his eyes and began hobbling out of the room. "Where are you going? You need to be here for the assembly!"

"Pft, as if." Xraff scoffed as he took a swig from his hip flask. "You said it yourself, the more outta sight I am, the better. I'm merely taking your advice." Xraff left no chance for a response as he quickly departed the room. Terrador swore under his breath before sauntering onto the main stage.

XxX

Spyro and Cynder entered the auditorium together and froze in shock. The large coliseum like facility was packed to capacity with dragons of different shapes, sizes, and colors. Instantly, the duo felt hundreds of sets of eyes turn to them. They looked at each other and gulped. "Think we're the last ones here?" Cynder whispered.

CRASH!

She quickly got her answer as an unfamiliar yellow-orange dragoness garbed in a bow staggered into the room. "S-Sorry I'm late!" She squeaked. "I got kinda lost and… oh, it hasn't started yet." All the eyes in the room turned on Marion Masters and she felt blood rushing to her yellow-orange cheeks. "E-Excuse me." She muttered as she shuffled about looking for a possible place to sit. When nothing revealed itself she slinked toward the shadows in the back of the room.

"Psst! Overhere!" A voice called out rapidly. Masters immediately recognized Joule from the caves back in Weslender and quickly darted toward her. "Hey! Isn't this sucha coincidence thatwe're bothhere afterwebothmeteachother justyesterday? Thatseems so cool! Idon'…"

"Shut up! It's starting!" A turquoise dragoness with a diamond shaped pendant hissed in an undertone. The dragons all watched as Terrador marched up to the head of the stage followed by the array of different teachers. They were all dragons save for one cheetah, Hunter.

"Welcome students." Terrador spoke calmly but in a thundering voice that sent shivers up the students' spines. "Our society lives for self-betterment. As such, training you, the next generation, is of the utmost priority. Your lives have been nothing but hiding and taking refuge from the armies of Malefor. But thanks to a pair of special dragons that time is now over."

"And so we have been entrusted with the task of enriching your lives so that you may take on the leadership positions within our society. Some of you are here to undergo special training in the hopes of replacing Ignitus, our fallen guardian of fire." Terrador paused to catch his breath. "We will teach you of your heritage and train you in the dragon ways as we were trained before you." Terrador looked out over the crowd. "Rest assured, the road ahead will be difficult. But with hard work and perseverance you _will_ succeed."

He turned to look at the teachers behind him. "I would like to introduce you to the headmaster for the academy, Cyril, our ice guardian." Cyril seemed taken aback as the crowd lapsed into applause. "Also, one staff member is not present. Dr. Yevgeny Xraff will be teaching a very different sort of class and those who are lucky to have him should treat him with the utmost respect."

"Xraff? Never heard of him." Masters whispered to herself. "Is he some great draconic scholar or something?" She then thought to herself, _I wonder if I'll be able to get into his class_. _Certainly that would prove that I'm exceptional and shut Sebastian up_.

"And with that, you are all dismissed. You will find your schedules distributed to your rooms. First class starts in 30 minutes. Do not be late." Terrador sent the students away in a flurry of activity. _And so, let us begin a new age._ He thought silently.

_**In a Class Above**_

_**EPISODE TWO: 19 Seconds**_

**Warfang Academy – Corridors**

"So this is where we split up." Spyro noted bitterly. The guys' dormitories were located in the west wing of the enormous main building while the girls' dormitories were located in the east wing. With teenagers came raging hormones and the guardians were not willing to take any chances with possible couples.

"Yeah, I suppose it is." Cynder whispered, tapping her front right paw on the ground. She looked Spyro straight in the eyes. "Do you think we'll be in any classes together?"

"I can only pray." Spyro muttered. "I just don't trust some of these other dragons. Especially after that snarky blue one confronted us in the classroom."

"I actually figured out a little bit of information on him from the dragoness next to me." Cynder exclaimed. "His name is Gennady. He's some ice prodigy from the Vojislav Mountains who thinks he's Draco's gift to dragons everywhere. He's trying to form up a little gang and put himself on the top. His reputation is already garnering some interest and he's forming a wall of dragons around him."

"Well how the hell are we supposed to deal with that?" Spyro snorted in frustration. "The last thing I need is some stupid gang on my case all the time."

"Easy Spyro," Cynder coaxed, "if we just ignore Gennady and his thugs he's bound to leave us alone." Cynder turned around and began to make her way toward her wing. "Just try not to think too much about it." She called out.

Spyro swore. "I knew she was gonna say that." He growled in frustration.

**Marion Masters's Room**

Masters had not had a chance to unpack her belongings so her room consisted over several rucksacks and a small pile of cushions comprising a bed along with a study desk and luminescent orb for light. She found a piece of parchment on her desk. Masters was curious and therefore walked up to the parchment and clasped it in her talons.

WARFANG ACADEMY CLASS SCHEDULE

Student Masters, Marion

Sex Female

Age 15

Element Fire

Hometown Weslender Plains

Classes:

830-930 = Advanced Writing & Mathematics (Volteer)

945-1045 = Physical Training (Watson)

1100-1200 = Magical & Physical Combat ~ Advanced (Cyril)

1215-1300 = Lunch

1315-1530 = The Practical World of Magic (Dr. Yevgeny Xraff)

Masters froze. She had expected to be in the higher level classes because of her high intellect but as she glanced upon Dr. Xraff's name she had to resist the urge to scream in delight. _Finally_, she sighed in her mind, _I have a chance to prove to the whole world that I'm not some stupid fluke and I am worth a damn. I'll show Sebastian, I'll show the purple dragon, I'll show the guardians, I'll show everyone that I'm not someone to be messed with_.

She grabbed the schedule and a satchel containing her supplies and rushed down the hall. She was charging so fast she did not notice the electric blue wind dragon crossing the hall and collided with him. "Ack! Masters!" Data growled as he was knocked onto his back. "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"S-Sorry, Data," Masters mumbled in sheer embarrassment. "I guess my mind was just focusing on other things."

"Clearly," Data snorted. "What's got you so excited all of a sudden? Did Sebastian choke on some sheep meet and keel over?" He pondered with a raised eyebrow.

"No, even better; I'm in Xraff's class!" She squealed in delight.

"Seriously? Congratulations," Data exclaimed. "You're so damn lucky. I have to take some stupid class with Terrador instead."

"I know, right? Finally, the moment to show everyone who I really am has come!" She stated with fierce determination in her eyes.

"That's nice, but remember that all the other hot-shots are going to be there too. So don't get too cocky." Data cautioned.

"I'll keep that in mind." Masters acknowledged before continuing her run down the hall. Data just chuckled and shook his head.

**Spyro's Room**

Spyro looked at his schedule in absolute confusion.

WARFANG ACADEMY CLASS SCHEDULE

Student Spyro

Sex Male

Age 16

Element Fire, Ice, Electricity, Earth

IMPORTANT NOTE: Excused from several classes due to testing out. Coloration is purple.

Hometown Dragonfly Swamp

Classes:

830-930 = History of Magic (Gaius)

945-1045 = Physical Training (Watson)

1100-1200 = Unstructured Time

1215-1300 = Lunch

1315-1530 = The Practical World of Magic (Dr. Yevgeny Xraff)

"I guess all the fighting I've done is enough to place out of some classes." Spyro stated contently. He then noticed that he was listed as taking Xraff's "special class." "This should prove interesting."

"Or a complete disaster." A voice spat back. Spyro whirled around to see a dragon standing in his doorway that he had never gazed upon before. He was a teal dragon with a silver underbelly and three sets of ivory horns. A thin, rapier-like tail blade topped his tail and Spyro gasped as he realized this was a water dragon. "You're the purple." He noted.

"So I am." Spyro responded.

"And you got into Xraff's class?" The teal dragon inquired. Spyro nodded. "Well that's good for you. But I'd watch your tail because there's a lot of dragons here who are suspicious of you and want you gone."

"What? Why?"

"Something to do with you growing up to be like Malefor." The teal dragon sneered. "Also, I came to warn you that a couple of dragonesses I happen to know have set their sights on you. They're both annoying bitches so if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from them." He hissed. Spyro seemed taken aback by the dragon's icy attitude.

"Thanks… I think." Spyro grumbled, gazing suspiciously at the new dragon. "I, uh, have to go to class now." Spyro slipped past the teal dragon and was gone in an instant. The teal dragon watched him with an intense glare.

"You're a real bastard, you know that?" The teal dragon whirled around as Thundra sauntered up to him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He scoffed.

"You want Aqua or Terra for a mate and that's why you think you can intimidate the purple dragon into avoiding them." She snorted in contempt. She shook her head. "You can be a real jerk sometimes, Hydrous."

"Is it that obvious?" Hydrous gawked.

"You might as well be walking around with a sign on your chest reading 'do me, ladies'." Thundra huffed.

"Like I really care what you think." Hydrous sneered. "I've got places to be, anyway." He turned around, the tip of his tail blade catching Thundra's long snout and stomped off angrily.

**Warfang Academy – Gymnasium**

**Monday, 0945**

Spyro stretched his weary limbs in preparation for his physical training class. The magical history class had nearly put him to sleep. The professor, and old earth dragon named Gaius, spoke in a very monotone voice that made it incredibly difficult for the dragon to stay awake half the time. Spyro was glad he now had an opportunity to get his blood pumping. Spyro looked around at some of his classmates. He recognized Hydrous, the teal dragon from earlier, who was doing his best to avoid making eye contact with him.

He also recognized the yellow-orange dragoness that had shown up last to the assembly and caused quite a ruckus. She was stretched next to a dark gray lightning dragoness who was running her lips almost as fast as Volteer. Spyro also noticed Gennady, the annoying blue ice dragon, enter flanked by several different dragons of various colors and elements. At last a very tall, large, well-built lightning dragon entered the room.

"Alright, you lot. Gather up around me, if you would!" He thundered. The entire class snapped to attention and ran toward the teacher, forming a large circle around him. "Very good. Very quick. I like that. This class is all about the importance of physical health and maintaining a high level of stamina." The dragon paused. "You will address me as Coach Watson, nothing else." He looked around at the large group. "Alright, I want three laps around the gym for a warm-up. When you're done, report back to me. GO!"

The students all took off at a brisk jogging pace around the large gymnasium. Joule and Masters paired up next to one another and Joule began chatting away. "I'vealways loved to run somuch. It reallygets my bloodgoing andtheenergyflowing and it'ssomuchfun! I don'tunderstandwhymorepeopledon'tliketorun, youknow?" Joule looked at Masters for a response but the young dragoness could barely keep peace with Joule, who was hardly breaking a sweat with the jog.

"No, I _hate _running." Masters wheezed. Several paces behind them, Spyro slowly trotted around. He was certain that he could easily go toe-to-toe with the jabber jaw gray dragoness who was bragging to her friend about her speed. After all, Spyro had to run for much of his life because his underdeveloped wings did not offer him the ability to fly until after he had been freed from the crystal with Cynder during The Eternal Night.

Gennady, Kaiser, and Sebastian watched the purple dragon finish his laps with keen interest. Hydrous trotted up to them. "You should try to sabotage him." Hydrous whispered, his voice dripping with content.

"And why would we go out of our ways to provoke a purple like that?" Kaiser snorted. "We're not idiots." He suddenly winced as Gennady smacked him upside the head with his muscular tail.

"The point here is that we have an opportunity to _humiliate_ the purple." Gennady snorted. "We can't simply expect our reputations to grow unless we pull off something big. Screwing the purple over in a race is just that something." He exclaimed with a triumphant grin.

"Yeah, but you certainly can't run for shit." Sebastian sneered. "You're slower than a Death Hound with a mutilated leg."

"Har, har," Gennady mock laughed, sarcasm evident in his tone. "Laugh it up, Bastion, but you're a slowpoke too." He noted. Sebastian grinded his teeth as his so-called friend pushed his buttons.

"I'm not that slow." Hydrous offered. "I was jogging really slowly so I could hold back."

"Then beat him for Draco's sake." Gennady hissed.

"Fine, but you guys have to screw him up." Hydrous gawked.

"Deal," Sebastian grunted and shook Hydrous's paw. At that point the last of the dragons had finished their warm up and Watson took attendance.

"Today we're going to work on your sprinting abilities." Watson remarked. "This is a very basic skill that all dragons need to have especially when trying to deal with prey or an enemy that is faster than you. Although we dragons are agile in the air our muscular legs can propel us across ground at a much more rapid pace. We will run timed sprints in an effort to improve your speed and agility."

The students lined up at the track's starting line. "Let's see here…" Watson looked at his clipboard containing the student roster. "Gennady! Report to the line!" He ordered.

The bulky ice dragon vocalized his obvious annoyance at being chosen first. He stepped up to the line and readied himself in a crouching position. Watson blew his whistle and Gennady stumbled into a sprinting rhythm. His paws hit the ground in pairs and Gennady lowered his head in an effort to shoot forward even faster. At last he made his way across the finish line. Watson looked at the hydro-powered timer he held. "34 seconds… a little on the slow side."

"Bite me." Gennady muttered under his rapid breaths as he slowly trotted back to his little gang, struggling to take in breaths.

"Alright, next up is Spyro!" The purple dragon froze at the mention of his name. He pointed a claw at himself and mouthed "me" to Watson. "Do you see any other purple dragons in the room?" Spyro looked around and then stared at the floor in embarrassment as the class sniggered at the remark. Spyro admitted defeated and stepped up to the line. He coiled himself up in preparation to run.

TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

The whistle sound and Spyro bolted from his starting position. His paws smacked the ground as he bounded forward in long, effortless strides. His chest heaved and his lungs screamed for oxygen but the purple dragon charged forward, throwing his entire body into the sprint. Spyro quickly dashed across the finish line and skidded to a halt, hearth thumping rapidly in his chest and muscles burning from an overproduction of lactic acid due to a lack of oxygen.

Watson raised his eyebrows as he looked at the draconic stopwatch. "20 seconds." He whistled. "You may be the dragon of Prophecy after all." He joked. The rest of the class giggled at the comment and Spyro's cheeks flushed red with humiliation. He slinked back to his spot in line. Oh how he wished Cynder could be there and help him put these dragons in their place; after all, she was the self-confident one. Spyro considered himself a bit to shy and never really had to stand up for himself before.

He would even give a paw to have his loudmouth adoptive brother Sparx there, but sadly he had decided to go back to his dragonfly colony.

The remainder of the class proceeded with the sprint drill but nobody came close to catching Spyro's time. Finally, Joule stepped up to the starting line. "Ohboy, ohboy! I can'twaittostartrunning!" The whistle sounded and Joule sped out of the start like a bolt of lightning. She dashed forward, her thin legs pounding on the stone floor and her body becoming a gray blur as she made for the finish line. She darted across the finish line and spun around to face Watson, whose jaw nearly hit the floor as he looked at the time.

"N-Nineteen seconds," He croaked, his voice cracking slightly. "S-Simply remarkable."

"YAY! Ididit Ididit! Igotthefastesttime! IknewIcoulddoit!" Joule happily bounded about the room cheering to herself. Masters could not help but smile at the gray lightning dragon's antics but certain others in the class were not amused.

"I want a race!" Hydrous shouted. "Right here, right now; around the _full_ track." He challenged loudly.

"Arace?" Joule parroted. "OhItotallywouldlovetodothat!" She skipped happily over to the starting line for the full circular track. Gennady and Sebastian joined Hydrous.

"Hey, purple boy!" Spyro turned to face Hydrous as he heard his name. "You gonna race me or are you too _chicken_?" Spyro frowned. He would have preferred not to get involved in Hydrous's immature antics but now it was a matter of pride on the line. Spyro glared at the water dragon and stepped up to the line, crouching in readiness.

"Very well then. We will have a one-lap race. First to return to this starting point shall be deemed the winner." Watson gripped his whistle and in response all the dragons tensed up, awaiting the start.

TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

"AAAAAAUGH!" Spyro screamed as his hind legs were swept out from under him. The purple dragon slammed onto the floor and could just make out Sebastian and Gennady laughing as they took off on the track. Joule and Hydrous were already well ahead of him. "Those fucking assholes!" Spyro shouted as he bolted upright and took off after the other dragons.

Gennady and Sebastian saw him coming and immediately banked to the left, cutting off his course. Spyro hissed in frustration and made a hard right. But Sebastian stuck his tail out and Spyro once again tasted dirt as he skidded along the ground. He got back to his feet and took off, charging forward like a mad bull. Hydrous was only a half a body length behind Joule but it was clear the lightning dragoness was winning.

Spyro approached Gennady and just as the ice dragon prepared to cut him off thrust his wings forward. Dirt was sent flying into Gennady's eyes and the ice dragon dropped to the ground, howling in pain. Sebastian looked back in horror and turned to the purple dragon, leering with killing intent. Spyro broke into a sprint and overtook Sebastian, who stayed back to help his fallen friend.

Spyro could now make out Hydrous and Joule who were neck and neck once more. Hydrous glanced briefly over his shoulder and snorted out a small tuft of water. The stone immediately became slippery and Spyro found himself unable to avoid the puddle and went spinning out of control. He came dangerously close to hitting the wall but was able to stable himself out and proceeded forward.

Joule and Hydrous were beginning to near the finish line with Spyro slowly making up the distance. Hydrous glanced over his shoulder again and gasped as Spyro started to narrow his lead. Hydrous took a sharp breath and ducked his head down, breaking into a full flown charge. But Spyro matched him step for step and soon was right on his tail.

The finish line was only meters away!

Joule redoubled her efforts and inched ahead of Hydrous but the water dragon swung his tail around and smacked Joule's hind leg. The dragoness squealed in pain and her run turned into more of an awkward limp. Hydrous now found himself in the lead.

…Or so he thought. He was unexpectedly bumped in the side and nearly screamed as Spyro was now running directly next to him. "What the-? How in the hell did you catch up?" Hydrous howled in anger and swung his tail at the purple dragon but Spyro suddenly dove for the finish line. "NO!" Hydrous screamed as his tail missed its mark and Spyro skidded across the finish line centimeters ahead of Joule who beat Hydrous by a nose.

Spyro got to his feet. He was shaky; adrenaline pumped through his body; his chest burned and he was covered in scratches.

But the class cheered his victory. Joule suddenly walked up to him with a big goofy grin. "Wow! Thatwasjustawesome. Ineverthoughtanyonecould runlikethat. You'retottaly cool, Spyro!" She blabbed. Spyro glanced over at Hydrous who was stomping around angrily and swearing profusely. Gennady, his face dirtied thanks to the purple dragon, shook his paw at Spyro.

"You got lucky, purple!" Sebastian growled. Watson walked up to Spyro and patted him on the back.

"Well done, young dragon. I think that's about all we're going to have time for today, so you're all dismissed!"

**Cafeteria**

**1215, Monday**

"Hey, uh, Spyro!" Spyro looked over his shoulder and recognized the yellow-orange dragoness, Masters, trotting toward him. "Uh, hi."

"Hi?" Spyro half asked, half responded.

"Listen, uh, Joule was wondering if y-you wanted to have lunch with us?" Masters stammered. Spyro pondered the question for a moment. On the one hand, she was worse that Volteer in the talking department. But on the other, she treated him very nicely and seemed like a good friend to make. Spyro nodded his head and gathered up a plate of steak and fruit and joined Masters and Joule. Joule spent the better part of lunch explaining her past in Weslender Plains to Spyro. Spyro, for his part, was a good listener and asked questions when he got confused. He noticed that Masters was surprisingly silent. She acknowledged them a couple of times but for the most part focused on her meal.

Spyro finally caught a black figure out of the corner of his eye. "Cynder!" He called out. The dragoness locked eyes with him and smiled before bounding over happily.

"There you are!" She chirped. "Sorry I missed lunch. I was helping Terrador move some furniture around in his classroom."

"It's okay. At least I know you're still around." The two laughed. And then the academy bell went off. Spyro sighed. "Well, time to see what this Dr. Xraff business is all about."

"Oh…" Cynder went quiet. "Y-You got in."

"Yeah. Why? Did you not?" Cynder nodded. "What? That's bullshit; we're both equal in strength and ability. How can they accept me and not you?"

"I don't know." Another bell sounded. "I-I better go…" She quickly darted away. Spyro bit his lower lip and then proceeded toward a set of stairs.

**Academy Tower**

**1315, Monday**

Spyro walked into the spacious lecture room. He was taken aback to find the room full of assorted dragons of _red_ coloration. "What the-? Is this some sort of fire dragon-only class?"

"Oh, it's you again." Spyro turned around to see Masters standing in the doorway. "You're in this class too?"

"Y-Yeah. And apparently so is every other fire dragon in the school." Masters looked past Spyro and noticed he was indeed right. Only only fire dragons populated the room.

"Huh; that _is_ interesting." Spyro ignored her and walked up to a desk. Curiously, it had a sign with a piece of string on it with the number one printed on the sign. He stared at the sign, clearly bewildered.

"You're supposed to _wear_ it." A brick colored dragon directly behind Spyro snarkily commented. He had a lime green underbelly and three sets of metallic horns. A can-opener shaped tail blade adorned his tail. "Didn't you read the board?" Spyro looked up at the large black board that read:

PLEASE PUT YOUR NUMBER ON. I WILL BE IN SHORTLY.

"Oh, my bad." Spyro mumbled. He slipped the number one sign around his neck and sat down on his cushion. The rest of the class, all fire dragons, slowly filed in and began to take seats. But when the starting bell rang, there was no sign of the teacher. The class was waiting for a good 15 minutes before one fire dragon started getting angry.

"Where the _hell_ is this Xraff guy?" The dragon, auburn with an amber underbelly and wings, growled. He had one set of horns, but his left horn had broken off leaving only fragments. The remaining horn curved downward. He had a sort of scruffy appearance to him. "We've been waiting for 15 fucking minutes already.

CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!

The students all turned to the door and listened to the sound of footsteps intertwined with a loud knocking noise. The door to the classroom swung wide open and the tall, thin pseudo-elf walked in. He was dressed in a brown jacket and slacks with an open-neck green button down shirt. The entire class went speechless and Spyro's jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Welcome one and all to the practical world of magic! I'm Dr. Yevgeny Darius Xraff and you _lucky_ bunch are in for a whirlwind of a time."

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**If you enjoyed the chapter or have any feedback to offer, please review. Thank you for your participation!**

**Writing**

BestNotes & Jon Westman

**Editing**

Vlad Johnson

**Also Contributing**

Mark Bayer (Hydrous)

Jon Westman (Sebastian)

Vlad Johnson (Gennady)

**Guest Contributing**

Vanessa Stein (Kaiser)

R.B. Zadonis (Data)

Douglas R. Langdon (one-horned dragon)

Devin Schafer (brick-colored dragon)

**Episode Created by BestNotes**


	4. Episode 2 Part 2

_**Academy Tower**_

_**1315, Monday**_

_Spyro walked into the spacious lecture room. He was taken aback to find the room full of assorted dragons of red coloration. "What the-? Is this some sort of fire dragon-only class?" _

"_Oh, it's you again." Spyro turned around to see Masters standing in the doorway. "You're in this class too?"_

"_Y-Yeah. And apparently so is every other fire dragon in the school." Masters looked past Spyro and noticed he was indeed right. Only only fire dragons populated the room._

"_Huh; that is interesting." Spyro ignored her and walked up to a desk. Curiously, it had a sign with a piece of string on it with the number one printed on the sign. He stared at the sign, clearly bewildered._

"_You're supposed to wear it." A brick colored dragon directly behind Spyro snarkily commented. He had a lime green underbelly and three sets of metallic horns. A can-opener shaped tail blade adorned his tail. "Didn't you read the board?" Spyro looked up at the large black board that read:_

_PLEASE PUT YOUR NUMBER ON. I WILL BE IN SHORTLY._

"_Oh, my bad." Spyro mumbled. He slipped the number one sign around his neck and sat down on his cushion. The rest of the class, all fire dragons, slowly filed in and began to take seats. But when the starting bell rang, there was no sign of the teacher. The class was waiting for a good 15 minutes before one fire dragon started getting angry._

"_Where the hell is this Xraff guy?" The dragon, auburn with an amber underbelly and wings, growled. He had one set of horns, but his left horn had broken off leaving only fragments. The remaining horn curved downward. He had a sort of scruffy appearance to him. "We've been waiting for 15 fucking minutes already._

_CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!_

_The students all turned to the door and listened to the sound of footsteps intertwined with a loud knocking noise. The door to the classroom swung wide open and the tall, thin pseudo-elf walked in. He was dressed in a brown jacket and slacks with an open-neck green button down shirt. The entire class went speechless and Spyro's jaw nearly hit the floor._

"_Welcome one and all to the practical world of magic! I'm Dr. Yevgeny Darius Xraff and you lucky bunch are in for a whirlwind of a time."_

_**In a Class Above**_

**EPISODE TWO: 19 Seconds (Part 2)**

"_You're_ Dr. Xraff?" The brick colored dragon snorted. "You're some stupid pointed-eared freak!"

"Incredibly observant and a very detailed description, Number Six." Xraff responded sarcastically. "But if you're looking to strike fear into the bottom of my heart I think you've got the wrong classroom." Xraff turned to look at the entire layout of students. "Thirty students, wow. And I'm really supposed to pick one from this bunch."

"What are you rambling about, grandpa?" Number Six growled.

"Oh _come on_. Don't tell me you haven't figured this out already. Is _everyone_ in this room a bumbling _idiot_?" Xraff scoffed.

"WHAT?" Number Six gawked at Xraff's bitter remark. "You're calling me an idiot? I'm not the elf trying to teach a class full of dragons."

"And _I'm_ not the blind bat who can't even realize this entire class is full of fire dragons." Xraff fired back. Number Six sank down in his seat somewhat humiliated by Xraff's revelation. He turned and addressed the rest of the class. "Welcome to Fire Guardian Training 101. So sorry if the class title was a bit off it seems I just can't get my spelling straight some days."

"You're training us?" Marion Masters, wearing number 14, inquired.

"Do I really need to answer that?" Xraff groaned. "What is it with you dragons and your stupid questions?" He sighed and shook his head. "Let's begin with an exercise. Number 19, please stand." Zsnafrid, the orange and yellow dragon from the Fallujah Desert, stood up in response. "Alright, who can explain the significance of 19 as it relates to magic?" Xraff inquired, tapping the base of his cane against his worn leather shoe.

"Isn't 19 the number of months a dragon needs to live before it can start using an element?" A cinnabar colored dragon with a sandy brown underbelly and three sets of metallic horns inquired. He wore a black scarf around his neck. Xraff tapped his cane impatiently against his shoe once again. He looked directly at Spyro.

"Number One," Spyro snapped to attention. "Tell Scarf Boy he's an idiot."

"What? Why?" Spyro complained.

"Unless you have a better hypothesis than Scarf Boy, _tell him he's an idiot_." Xraff commanded. Spyro turned around and faced the cinnabar dragon with an apologetic look.

"You're an idiot." He mumbled. The scarf-wearing dragon glared at Spyro and the purple dragon stared at the floor with an overwhelming sense of dread.

"My name isn't Scarf Boy, it's Zephyr!" Zephyr growled angrily. "And you're a complete and total asshole." He pointed a talon at Xraff accusingly.

"Commenting on my personality is certainly not going to get you geniuses any closer to the correct answer. Significance of 19, go." He pointed to two identical cerise dragonesses.

"Um…" The first one stammered. "A dragon can hold its breath 19 minutes under water?"

"That's stupid!" The twin sneered. "Everyone knows a dragon can swim for indefinite periods of time with the correct magic."

"Oh, and you would know this? You're deathly afraid of water!" The first twin spat.

"At least I don't have to spend an hour of day in front of the mirror primping myself." The second twin snarled.

"Bitch!"

"Slut!"

"Whore!"

"ENOUGH!" Xraff snarled, slamming his cane on the ground and causing sparks to fly up in every direction. "Neither of you are presenting a single good argument and you both to seem to care more about getting under each other's scales. I care not for your stupid sibling rivalry antics."

"She started it." The first twin snorted, pointing her claw at her twin sister.

"Moira, you're a two-faced scum-sucking liar!" The twin hissed.

"Better than being a snotty, over possessive brat, Voira." Moira sneered. "I swear, sometimes you walk around like your head is shoved right up your…" Voira hissed and slapped her sister across the cheek. "Ha, is that the best you can do!" Moira laughed.

"For the love of God, someone shut them up." Xraff growled. "I'm starting to get a headache." He reached into his jacket pocket and plucked out his hip flask. He threw his head back and gulped down the bitter liquid.

"Are you bloody mental?" Zephyr gawked, his jaw dropping. "You're drinking during a _class_."

"Last time I checked I was the teacher which meant that I made the rules."

"To a certain degree perhaps…" Moira commented.

"…but that's just insane and disgusting!" Voira added.

"How much longer do I have to keep standing?" Zsnafrid grumbled. "My legs are starting to cramp up."

"Well then perhaps you should talk to your classmates about the answer to the significance of the number 19." Xraff growled. He snapped his fingers, "Come on people, we don't have all day here."

"19 seconds is the amount of time it takes all magical energy to disperse from the body when a dragon receives a fatal wound." A crimson dragoness with a very dark purple underbelly responded in a shaky voice.

"Lucky Thirteen jumping to rescue the struggling class, very good." The young dragoness merely snorted. Xraff shook his head and began pacing back and forth. "Let me state something on the record here. You are now in a class above your peers. You are at point where you could reach the pinnacle of leadership in dragon society." Xraff examined his cane. "Those of you who can play my little game with enough skill and ingenuity might find the tools you need to succeed as a leader. As for the rest of you…" Xraff raised his cane and pointed toward the door.

"Wait… you're going to _kick us out_?" Marion Masters guffawed. "You… you can't do that! We've all been signed up for this class."

"Oh I'm sorry, does my policy interfere with your precious little moral compass?" Xraff sarcastically stated in mock concern. "You'll have to forgive me because I left my compassion with my other hip flask." At that he pulled out his hip flask once again and took a sip of the alcoholic liquid within. "From now on… your time and energy belongs to me."

The class burst into a wave of protests at the statement. Xraff merely raised his hand. "Yes, I _am_ telling you that as of now you've been dropped from your other classes and you will report here at first bell every morning."

"You're insane!" Masters blurted out.

"Annoying Bitch, please save your comments for the end of the presentation." Xraff stated in a mock business tone. "This class will be based upon cases which will be presented to _me_ personally by your principle Cyril and the chief administrator, Terrador."

"Cases?" Zsnafrid parroted. "Aren't you going to teach us?"

"You've been placed in this class because your knowledge of the magical world is already exceptional. But now you need to _use_ that knowledge, which is what these cases will do. You all want to talk the talk? Well, you'll need to walk the walk to do that." Xraff explained.

"I stand by my statement that you're a madman!" Masters sneered. "I refuse to work with you." She snorted and stuck her snout up in the air defiantly.

"Oh, let me guess. You dislike my pet name for you." Xraff groaned. He walked directly up to Masters and stared at her. "You're concerned with being exceptional. You can never directly confront anyone because you know that you lack that ability so you resort to passive side comments in an attempt at unnerving people into giving you want you want." Masters squirmed uneasily in her seat. It was as if Xraff was staring directly through her.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

The tone of a bell sounded and the entire class sighed with relief. "Oh, what a tragedy, I was having so much fun." Xraff remarked. He tapped his cane on the ground. "I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow." He quickly limped away before anyone else in the class could make a comment toward him. Spyro turned to find Number Thirteen to congratulate her for the right answer but she was gone equally quickly.

"I don't know about you, but I think we've all signed up for more than we bargained for." The one-horned dragon stated. "By the way, I'm Ike, nice to meet you." He extended a paw forward. Spyro hesitantly took it and shook it. "I'm not surprised you ended up being Number One, considering you're a purple and all that."

Zephyr approached them next. "It seems like we're all in for one hell of a rough time with this Xraff guy. I don't know about any of you, but I feel like quitting already." She sighed in defeat.

Ike patted him on the back comfortingly. "Easy there, guy." He coaxed. "I'm sure he's just putting on a façade to get some of us out of the contest before it can start."

"I do remember him referring to it as a game." Masters piped up. "I think he's a psychopath."

"You just don't like him because he doesn't conform to your strange sense of higher expectations." An all red dragon stated as he approached the group. He had a number two sign slung around his neck. "Name's Omar; I take it you don't like Xraff that much."

"He makes my scales crawl in a bad way." Zephyr sneered, shivering slightly. "The way he treats us is disgusting."

"And you don't think he's doing this to mess with you? To get under your scales?" Omar stated. "He's looking for a good leader. A good leader's got to be willing to put up with all sorts of shit from all sorts of nasty people. Unfortunately I guess Xraff is deciding to utilize that as a form of teaching." He explained in a bitter tone.

"It would certainly explain the insults he hurled at us." Ike growled. "He's trying to dig into us and mess with our heads. See which of us is mentally tough enough." He then puffed his chest and boldly proclaimed, "And I certainly don't plan on dropping out. If he thinks that he's going to screw with me then he's got another thing coming."

"Oh, a feisty one, aren't you?" One of the twins, Moira, whispered as she sauntered up to the group. "I think that Xraff is actually acting under someone else's orders. Maybe Terrador's, perhaps?"

"That's an incredibly daft idea." Voira chided. "Obviously he's got some sort of mental problem."

"Listen, we could sit here shooting around theories for the entire afternoon but it's going to get us nowhere. I say we head back to our rooms, get some rest and meet up in the morning." Omar growled.

"Agreed." Spyro stated with a nod. One thing was for sure; things were about to get really intense.

**Boys' Dormitories – Showers**

**1700, Monday**

Spyro turned the hot water nozzle as high up as it would go and was buffeted by a stream of steaming hot water. Spyro shivered slightly as the liquid splattered across his scales, cleansing him of the dirt and grime that he had accumulated during the day. He was certainly stressed. Xraff had left a bitter first taste in his mouth and no matter what the purple dragon tried he was unable to get Xraff's stinging words out of his head.

"Psst; hey there, hot stuff." A voice growled seductively from behind him. Spyro let out a startled yip and jumped away from the shower. He instinctively reached for the towel he had draped over a hook and threw it around his lower section. Spyro watched as a familiar black dragoness emerged from the shadows, stepping into the hot shower. "Easy, Spyro, it's just me."

"Cynder?" Spyro gasped in surprise. "What are you doing here? Do you have any idea how much trouble you would get in if somebody found you here?" Spyro stated in concern.

"Relax, nobody's going to find me." She scoffed, flicking a paw nonchalantly at the question. "I just wanted to see you. It seems we don't have a single class together and I missed you." She walked forward, the steaming water causing her scales to glisten. She cooed and nuzzled Spyro's chest. The purple dragon flinched from the contact but subconsciously enjoyed the feeling. "So, how was your day?"

"I hardly think that here is the place for that kind of conversation." Spyro snorted.

"Would you rather talk about something else then?" Cynder asked, flipping over onto her back and allowing the water to splash over her red underbelly. "I can think of plenty of sensual topics that fit the stereotypical shower scene." She paused and added in a low growl, "Maybe a few sexual ones if you can play nice." At this point Spyro's face was as red as a stoplight and he could feel blood and hormones rushing around his body.

He gulped. "M-Maybe another day Cynder." He cautiously sidestepped. "I've had a rough first day of classes, if you catch me drift."

"All the more reason to relieve that stress." She whispered sensually as she stepped forward and pressed her lips firmly against his. Spyro felt his blood turn to water but forced himself to break from the contact.

"I-I'm sorry, Cynder. I-I can't… not right now." He sighed. "I've got too much on my mind."

"Then talk to me." She sat down on her haunches, blocking his shower. "I've got time."

"It's Xraff." Spyro groaned in irritation. "He's an asshole. He treated the entire class like dirt and couldn't show us the slightest bit of respect."

"That's your problem?" Cynder raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Spyro, you've had to deal with a _lot_ worse than that."

"Cynder," Spyro growled, warning her that she was pushing all the wrong buttons. "I've dealt with Malefor's armies trying to rip me in half. I haven't ever had to deal with dragons and elves trying to dig under my scales and tear me down psychologically." He then explained about the race in Watson's class and then Xraff's verbal assault during the afternoon class. He also mentioned how Xraff was expecting all the students to drop their classes and work solely for him. "He's basically turned this into a job… not a class." Spyro finished with a defeated sigh.

"Did you honestly think it would be easy?" Cynder inquired. "Spyro, you're a purple dragon. Don't you think that you would garner some ridicule from other dragons simple because of your color."

"But Gennady and his thugs think I'm some sort of freak!" Spyro complained.

"You _are_ a freak. But you're a good kind of freak." Cynder explained and then added with a smirk, "Like me."

"What's your point?"

"You need to show a little bit of self confidence. These guys won't mess with you if you show some courage and snap at them occasionally. Don't let them get to you or else they'll keep up their verbal assault." She suggested. "You need to learn not to take things so personally."

"Cynder, you've had practice. You keep having to dodge comments about your past." Spyro pointed out. Cynder frowned at the comment. "I've lived in a swamp most of my life with no one but Sparx to talk to."

Cynder prepared a rebuttal but froze. She could hear footsteps. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." She whispered before disappearing into the shadows. Spyro shook his head and turned toward the source of the footsteps. He froze upon recognizing the group of dragons headed up by the bulky blue ice dragon.

"Well, isn't this an unpleasant surprise." Gennady snorted. "Didn't you read the sign, freaks can only shower after everyone else is in bed." He taunted.

"Go away, Gennady. I didn't do anything to you." Spyro calmly rebuked.

"Didn't do anything to us?" Hydrous hotly fired back. "What do you call that stunt in the gymnasium then?"

"You _provoked_ me." Spyro snarled, baring his fangs for the group to see.

Sebastian shook his head. "We were trying to have a friendly race with you and you turned it into a rough little sport." He lied. "Only a _freak_ would feel the need to do that. To have a moment of glory by winning some stupid little race.

"As I recall, your friend Hydrous was so desperate to win. So spare me the theatrics." Spyro hissed acidly. He turned away from the group and started walking back toward his shower but Gennady blocked his path.

"Listen up, purple boy." He roared. Spyro froze and narrowed his eyes in contempt. "We're trying to go about doing our own thing here, and you're cramping our style. So either you stay out of our way…"

"Or we'll have to teach you a lesson." Sebastian threatened. Spyro leered at the earth dragon with a look that intended to cause some damage. But remembering Cynder's words, he held back.

"Fine," Spyro snorted. "I'll play your little game. You can go around and keep doing whatever it is your perverted sense of fun tells you to do. I have more _important_ things to deal with." Spyro gathered his belongings and exited the shower quickly and angrily.

"You're getting to let him zing you like that?" Hydrous gawked. "Rough him up! He just called you unimportant!"

"Relax," Gennady calmly replied, "you heard him yourself. He's gonna stay out of our way. It looks like we finally got through to him after all." Gennady stifled a laugh. "Soon we're gonna have this school under our paws, I tell ya."

**If you enjoyed the episode or have any feedback **_**please**_** review! The author is heavily motivated by reviews. Thanks for your cooperation!**

**Writing & Editing**

BestNotes & Jon Westman

**Guest Contributing**

Douglas R. Langdon (Ike)

Devin Schafer (Six)

Angela Dawes (Omar)

Jay Anderson (Zephyr)

Blaze406 (Thirteen)

Jon Westman (Sebastian)

Mark Bayer (Hydrous)

and Vlad Johnson (Gennady)

**Episode created by BestNotes**


	5. Episode 3

**Valley of Avalar  
>2400, Tuesday<strong>

The elderly Wild Hound chief lay upon his bed of straw, coughing, hacking, and wheezing. His heart was failing. It had been failing for some time now. But the chief knew that this had to be the end. His life had been plagued with these coughing fits for the last year, but this was the most intense one yet. The chief rolled over in his bed and spat up a wad of blood. The crimson liquid trickled down his snout and gathered in a pool by his bedside. The chief groaned in pain.

Beside him stood his two sons; twin sons. The one on the left was nearly identical to the chief in coloration and size but the one on the right was built much larger with a dark gray fur coating and a white beard. "Father!" The smaller one cried. "You must hang on for the good of the tribe."

"My son," The chief croaked. "I know that this is my time. This is how it is meant to be." He spat another glob of blood to the side and the larger son cringed. "I've lived… a full and… happy life." He wheezed. His chest screamed in pain and the chief could do nothing but clutch it in agony.

"We can get the healer, father." The larger son suggested.

"It… is useless, Bjorn." The father responded amidst a cacophony of loud coughs. "I… only ask that you and Isaiah work… together… for the… good of the…" The chief let out a particularly nasty cough and blood started to trickle from his nostrils and mouth. The Wild Hound whimpered and let out its dying bark as it collapsed back in its bed. Bjorn and Isaiah rushed to their father's side but they were too late.

His pupils had constricted. His eyes were frozen in terror; the terror of meeting death.

"He's gone." Isaiah whispered. He looked up at Bjorn. "What do we do now? Father never specified who is to survive him as chief of our clan."

"You're wrong, Isaiah." Bjorn snapped. "He specified we are _both_ to succeed him. We must work hand in hand to keep the tribe strong."

"Impossible! We cannot share power." Isaiah spat hotly. "Either you are to be chief or I am!"

"Calm yourself, brother." Bjorn attempted to coax. "I'm sure that the tribe can be entrusted to vote on a successor."

"Absolutely not! I refuse such an idiotic idea." Isaiah snorted, waving a paw in the air. "I know what the real issue is here, _brother_." He growled icily. "You want to break off ties with the dragons. You think we are worse off because of their help."

"Father was considering the same idea." Bjorn scoffed.

"And now he's _dead_! Who's to say the dragons didn't poison him?" Isaiah hotly rebuked. "We need the dragons more than you think, brother. Clearly you are not well versed in our foreign affairs enough to assume the responsibility of chief of our tribe."

"Who are you to judge me so, brother?" Bjorn growled in a threatening tone. "I am the superior warrior and hunter and I have never missed a council meeting." He continued. "You, on the other hand, are an irresponsible brat who runs around womanizing while leaving others to take care of important business!"

"YOU JEST!" Isaiah howled in fury and leaped at his brother. He brandished his long claws and slashed Bjorn across the chest. The larger Wild Hound was stunned by his brother's actions and lunged at him, swiping with his paws. Isaiah jumped back, easily dodging the attack and brandished his fangs. Bjorn's eyes widened as his smaller brother leaped at him and brought his teeth into his flesh. Bjorn let out a whimper as his windpipe was crushed by the death bite. Black spots filled his field of vision and the Wild Hound slumped to the ground as unconsciousness overtook him.

Isaiah released his brother, his eyes wide in shock. The realization that he had just tried to kill his own flesh and blood washed over him like a cold shower and he bolted out the door of his tent screaming, "We need a healer in here!"

**Warfang Academy – Cafeteria  
>0800, Tuesday<strong>

"I can't understand how you can stomach that much milk." Joule remarked as Marion Masters downed another glass of the cold white liquid. "Surely allthat basic substanceisbad for yourstomachacid."

"It's not like I'm drinking a whole gallon or anything." Masters guffawed. She had decided to put on a tie-dye ribbon as opposed to the usual red one because she was in a particularly bubbly mood. "I think today's going to be a good day." She sighed in content.

"I'd hold on thatthoughtifIwereyou." Joule whispered, motioning with her eyes toward the door. Masters gulped as she watched Sebastian stomp angrily into the room with Gennady in front of him and Hydrous and Kaiser and several other dragons flanking him. Gennady walked up to a dragon in line for breakfast and hissed at him, baring his fangs. The scared younger dragon immediately bolted from his spot, which Gennady happily took. "Ugh, I can'tbelievethat nobodyiswilling tostand uptothem." Joule spat.

Masters sank lower in her seat. She really did not want to deal with Sebastian this morning. Luckily it looked like the blue-green dragon had other things on his mind because he clearly did not notice her. "What are we going to do about the purple?" Sebastian growled. "He's clearly a threat to our status in this school."

"We should jump him!" A young fire dragon suggested. "All of us against him could work out nicely."

"Yeah!" Other dragons nodded in unison.

"You really think brute force is going to solve this little issue?" Kaiser mumbled skeptically. "What if Cynder gets involved? I heard she's a nasty little fighter."

"I want to see to that bitch personally." The eyes turned toward Aqua and Terra who both hissed the sentence in unison.

"Let me take a wild guess as to your motives." Gennady sneered. He puckered his lips up and began making kissing noises causing several of the other dragons to laugh. Terra and Aqua were clearly not amused and leered at the large ice dragon.

"I can't believe those jerks." Masters whispered to Joule. Unfortunately, her little comment seemed to catch the attention of one of the younger dragons in the gang who turned and whispered something to Sebastian. Masters squeaked as the earth dragon slowly walked toward her table.

"I hear Miss Self-Righteous is going around making comments about us behind our backs." Sebastian growled threateningly. "Now that's pretty hypocritical, isn't it?"

"We're not bothering you." Joule interjected. "Go away… creep."

"Ouch; that really hurts." Sebastian sarcastically responded. "Maybe I should offer little Masters an incentive to not go around flapping her jaw." Sebastian lowered his head and suddenly bucked his horns upward. The table in front of Masters was hefted off the ground and the fire dragoness screamed as she was about to be crushed by the large metal structure. She winced and braced for large amounts of pain…

…But it never came.

Small shards of metal flew in all directions causing several dragons to scatter and take cover behind pillars. Sebastian stared wide eyed toward the entrance where a tall man stood in dirty blue slacks and a blue tee shirt with a jacket slung over his shoulder. He was leaning heavily on a diamond cane. "Sorry to interrupt your little teenage soap opera." Yevgeny Xraff spoke up. "But I'm in need of some fire dragons to come up to the tower for a little consult."

Masters's heart was racing. The crazy pseudo-elf had just saved her life from her perspective and was blowing the whole thing off. "W-What?"

"You heard me. We've got us a little game to play. Don't worry, I'm serving coffee and doughnuts… oh, and savage Wild Hounds." Xraff joked as he turned and limped out of the room.

_**In a Class Above**_

**EPISODE THREE: Where the Wild Hounds Are**

Not all of the dragons that were in the class the previous day showed up to Xraff's lecture hall but the professor barely seemed to notice. He had two pictures of what looked like two Wild Hounds hanging from the chalkboard in the front of the room. He was limping back and forth, staring intently at his students. "Anyone want to tell me what these two Wild Hounds have in common?"

"Their lack of brains?" Ike joked, causing several of the dragons to snicker in amusement.

"I suppose that could be said." Xraff acknowledged. "But I'm not talking about their mental capacity. These two Wild Hounds are brothers." The class suddenly perked up. "Twin brothers to be precise." This phrase caught the attention of Voira and Moira who suddenly leaned forward in their seats with keen interest in their eyes.

"What's so bad about that?" Zephyr inquired.

"Their father was chief of the largest Wild Hound tribe on this side of the Silver River." Xraff replied. "Unfortunately the father is now dead."

"And I suppose those mutts both think that they deserve to be chief?" Omar scoffed. Xraff nodded as if he meant for Omar to continue. "And now they're fighting each other?"

"If by fight you mean one slashes the other into string cheese so that he ends up in _our_ infirmary then by golly you're absolutely right." Xraff replied in a mock-enthusiastic tone. "So our question is which one gets to be chief."

"Isn't it obvious? The older one gets the title." Voira suggested.

"Absolutely not; what if the younger one is more qualified to lead their pack?" Moira fired back.

"You're just saying that because _you're_ the younger one." Voira teased.

"I am two fucking minutes younger than you, Voira, give me a break!" Moira hissed.

"But I'm still older, so I still got more responsibility." Voira sneered.

"That's such an immature argument." Moira scoffed.

"Your face is an immature argument!" Voira chided, sticking out her tongue.

"That doesn't even make sense." Moira gawked.

"Aren't you going to shut them up already?" Ike growled to Dr. Xraff, who was whistling a pleasant tune to himself.

"Actually, I think it's funny to watch them quibble like the _morons_ they are." He replied with a triumphant smirk.

"We're not morons!" The twins shouted back in unison.

"Well you certainly managed to overlook one problem in their age factor." The brick colored dragon, Number Six, exclaimed. "The only ones who would know who the older kid is are the parents. And the dad's dead."

"What about the mother?" Voira inquired, turning to Dr. Xraff.

"What? You think I know the answer to that question?" Xraff stated in surprise. "If you think age is so important then go find the kids and ask them where the mother is. I'm sure that ought to get your answer."

"Wait," Omar piped up. "One of them looks a lot larger than the other. It's a good possibility that _he_ could be the older one."

"An excellent suggestion." Xraff complimented. "Now you can go with the wonder twins and talk to our weird wolf brothers." Omar looked at Xraff with a surprised expression, along with Voira and Moira. "Well, go on. You've got work to do." He shooed them away and the three dragons quickly left the room. Xraff turned back to the class. "As for the rest of you, try to at least look like you're doing something."

**Infirmary  
>0925, Tuesday<strong>

"Excuse me," Voira whispered to the attending dragon. "We're with the Academy and we're here to see the Wild Hounds." The dragon looked up from its paperwork and motioned to one of the rooms. The three younger dragons quickly trotted down the hall and entered a door. They saw the larger Wild Hound lying on a bed with several medicinal leaves plastered across his body. The younger hound was sitting in the corner of the room with a guilty expression on his face.

"I don't suppose you're here to bring me more painkillers, are you?" The older hound exclaimed with a slight chuckle. "I am Bjorn. That is my brother, Isaiah." He motioned to the smaller Wild Hound. "What can we help you with?"

"We're guardian candidates." Omar explained. "We've been asked by the guardians to assist in figuring out which one of you should be chief of your pack." Isaiah's ears perked up slightly at the mention of a chief.

"Have you come to some sort of decision?" Bjorn pondered aloud.

"Not exactly. But we were hoping that you might be able to tell us where your mother is." Voira explained.

"Our mother is dead." Isaiah spat. "Father killed her for disobedience." The three dragons froze at the sudden news. What had seemed like a good idea was now totally useless.

"I don't suppose either of you know who's older, do you?" Moira inquired.

"I am, obviously." Isaiah exclaimed.

"Fat chance, brother. My stature is greater than yours, suggesting it is _I_ who is older." Bjorn countered.

"And yet you lie weakly in your bed as I felled you." Isaiah growled, baring his fangs at his brother. "Clearly my superiority in battle proves that I am eldest!"

"You took advantage of my preoccupation with father's death." Bjorn rebuked. "You attacked me while my back was turned."

"HEY!" Omar shouted, catching their attention. "Fighting is not going to solve this dilemma so I highly recommend that you stop."

"Well you don't seem to be doing anything to help our predicament." Isaiah spat. Omar frowned at the smaller hound.

"We're trying to do the best we can but we need your cooperation." Omar exclaimed.

"I'll cooperate when you begin to think logically." Isaiah growled.

"We _are_ thinking logically. We just need a moment to come up with a new idea." Omar rebuffed, his temper starting to flare.

"Well, do not dawdle for I grow tired of these shenanigans." Isaiah hissed acidly.

**Warfang Academy Tower  
>1015, Tuesday<strong>

"The mother's dead and the two hounds seem completely clueless." Omar stated in an agitated tone. He turned to Voira and Moira, "Any other brilliant ideas?"

"Don't look at me; it was all Moira." Voira guffawed.

"Are you daft? This was your idea in the first place." Moira snorted in contempt.

"We could test their blood age." Masters offered. "We have them drink some chemicals which are designed to change color based upon the red blood cells that have been in their bodies the longest. A higher concentration _should_ create a darker color proving that one is older than the other."

"Nice work, Masters, maybe you do have a little bit of knowledge to back up those bizarre morals." Xraff exclaimed. "We should have some Aging Reagent in the back. Help yourself." He turned to the class. "Six and Thirteen can go with you for _emotional support_."

"I perfectly capable of handling myself, thank you." Masters responded.

"I know that but I highly doubt you're capable of prying any information out of those hounds so it's best to take along a couple of social-savvy dragons along with you." Xraff explained.

"Excuse me?" Masters gawked. "Are you saying I'm socially retarded or something?"

"Yes! By god why does everyone here have to repeat everything I say to them?" Xraff groaned as he pulled out his hip flask and downed a gulping of mead. "You're a bookie; I can tell it by your actions. You like books more than other people and half the time you don't think about what comes out of your maw so you come across as a bitch." Masters suddenly frowned and looked at Xraff with sorrowful eyes. "Oh, does my profanity cause you discomfort? Get used to it; swearing is a part of our world and if you think your sweet virgin ears can't take it you might as well be deaf."

"I think we can go now." Number Six stated bitterly. "C'mon, Masters." Masters stood in stunned awe, locked in a glaring contest with Xraff.

"Yes Masters, go on and show that your idea is exceptional." Xraff waved them off.

**Warfang Academy – Corridors  
>1045, Tuesday<strong>

"Wait… you're in charge of figuring out this Wild Hound chief crisis? That seems farfetched." Cynder snickered as she sauntered down the hallway with Spyro beside her.

"I'm not exactly going to go around questioning the guardians, Cynder." Spyro retorted. "I _want_ to be the fire guardian more than anything."

"Is it because of Ignitus?" Cynder asked, her voice taking on an unusually bitter tone. She immediately regretted asking because Spyro got a far away look in his eyes. She looked at Spyro and shook her head. "You think that earning his former position will satisfy some sort of inner peace? Do you honestly think that you can repair the relationship by becoming fire guardian?"

"I can try," Spyro responded poignantly. "It's the only way, Cyn. The only way I can get that sense of closure I desperately need."

"It's bullshit is what it is." Cynder huffed, flicking her tail across the air to show her distaste. "You really can't let go of this, can you?"

"Can't you at least _try_ to show some sympathy, Cynder?" Spyro pleaded, tears coming to his eyes. "I never knew what it what it was like to have someone that understood me until Ignitus came."

"How do you think _I_ feel?" Cynder snapped, her temper flaring up. "Who did I have to comfort me in those moments of weakness: _Malefor_? You think he was going to offer me support and strength? The only thing he offered me was more lashes for not training hard enough."

"Cyn, I'm sorry, but you don't have to worry about that anymore." Spyro reassured.

"That doesn't mean the memories aren't there!" She hissed, lashing at the air with her tail blade. "Spyro, I say this because I care; you're being a self-centered bastard right now. Moping and crying over Ignitus's death won't solve anything."

"And perseverating on your past will?" Spyro rebuked.

"NO!" Cynder screamed. "But I can't forget… I can _never_ forget. I'm reminded of it whenever I see another dragon walking through these halls and giving me a death stare!" She grit her teeth, seething with frustration. "You don't think I haven't had problems here so far? Everyone knows who I am… what I did! I've been blacklisted! They think I'm the fucking devil's spawn. Nobody will go near me."

"I-I can fix that!" Spyro stated weakly. Cynder smacked him across the face, leaving a stinging red mark.

"You're so caught up in your own grief that you can't recognize your best friend is suffering!" She growled.

"B-But you seemed fine yesterday." Spyro countered.

"I was _acting_." Cynder hissed venomously. "You were so stupefied you didn't bother asking me what happened yesterday." She looked at the floor with anger burning in her eyes.

"I was right." Spyro growled in a deep undertone. "Things are changing between us. I knew this academy was going to screw around with us."

"N-No, Spyro… I didn't mean that." Cynder suddenly pleaded.

"Really? Because you sounded pretty damn serious to me." Spyro rebuffed. Cynder let out a mournful sigh.

"Spyro… I'm scared." She whispered shamefully. "These new dragons… they look like they want to kill me." She fearfully added. "Every time I see one the same voice pops up in my head saying 'How did I ruin their life?' It's gotten so bad that I feel like I'm on the verge of a panic attack."

"I can help with that, Cyn." Spyro coaxed. "I've met a few nicer dragons in my guardian training and I think they'd be pretty stoked to meet you."

"Are you lying?" Spyro shook his head. "Just meet up with us for lunch; I'll promise, I'll make everything better." He leaned over and pecked her on the cheek.

"I love you." He whispered softly. Cynder perked up slightly at the comment and her lips curved upward in a smile.

XxX

"I can't believe that!" Terra thundered as Cynder walked away whistling contently to herself. "One minute they were at each other's throats and the next their snogging like boyfriend and girlfriend."

"How is that even possible?" Aqua huffed. "And what does the purple really see in that black _bitch_ anyway?"

"I told you both that you were screwed with your little contest." A voice called from behind them. Thundra sauntered up to them, a content grin on her face. "You may as well go for a dragon you have a chance with."

"Please… I'm not going to sink to _your_ levels." Aqua sneered. Thundra pouted at her friend's comment. "Spyro's the only dragon for me."

"You haven't even had one conversation with him." Thundra exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter," Terra hummed, "he's built perfectly to be my mate. Look at those rippling muscles… that broad chest…"

"I bet he's got a…" Aqua continued before Thundra clamped a paw over her muzzle.

"Enough. I swear, I hope Cynder teaches you two a lesson because frankly you could both use one."

"And what sort of lesson would that be?" Terra inquired.

"Set your sights a little lower for once in your life." Thundra huffed before she turned on a dime and marched back the way she came.

"Jeez, what's shoved up her ass?" Aqua snickered.

"She's always like that; trying to be all self-righteous. I bet she wants the purple just as much as us." Terra replied with a sly grin. "But the question is how do we go about attracting his attention when he's busy ogling that black bitch."

"We just have to use more subtle means." Aqua responded with a mischievous grin. "Eyes for Cynder or not, a little flirtatious posing will catch any young teenage dragon's hormones."

"I like the way you think." Terra sniggered.

**Infirmary  
>1120, Tuesday<strong>

"We're going to ask you both to drink aging reagent." Number Six explained. "It will determine your blood age based on magical signatures and can therefore tell us which one of you is older."

Isaiah looked over at his slumbering brother and back to the dragons. "You are expecting me to ingest a foreign liquid that I know nothing about? Are you daft?" He growled. "I'm willing to bet two paws your people poisoned our father."

"Why would do something like that?" Masters asked.

"Because our father wanted to break off ties with the dragons." Isaiah sourly stated. "You must understand, my tribe is heavily dependent upon trade with you dragons. Without your precious stones and minerals we would surely perish." He looked over at his brother. "My brother thinks that we do not need you to survive. But he is making a grim mistake." He gazed into the three dragons' eyes with a pleading look. "I am begging you, do not select him to be chief. You will lose a valuable ally and trading partner if you do."

Masters bit her lip but Thirteen stood firm and thrust the liquid into Isaiah's paws. "Drink it." She commanded. "If you are older like you say then you have nothing to worry about, right?" Isaiah grunted and gulped down the strange pink liquid. It appeared to hit his gag reflex because the hound clutched his stomach in obvious irritation. "Alright, now for your brother." The small hound reached a paw out and blocked Thirteen.

"My brother has contracted a fever and needs his rest. You can leave the reagent here and I will have the nurse give it to him when he awakens."

"Nice try," Thirteen sneered, "but obviously I can't let you rig these test results."

"Fine, I will give it to him now then." Isaiah huffed. He swiped the small cup from Thirteen's paws and lumbered over to his sleeping brother. "Bjorn, wake up." He barked. The larger hound's eyes flickered open and he yawned. "Drink up." He ordered. Bjorn grabbed the cup with shaky hands and downed the liquid. His snout suddenly scrunched up in discontent.

"Is something wrong?" Masters inquired. Bjorn looked at her with a worried look.

"M-My chest… it feels like it's burning… like there's something on fire." Bjorn suddenly let out a hacking cough and the entire room gasped as a glob of blood launched from his mouth and splattered on the wall opposite him. Bjorn erupted into a fit of hacking and wheezing, blood seeping from his mouth and trickling out of his nostrils. Isaiah's eyes widened and he instantly grabbed Masters by the bow.

"What did you do to my brother? _WHAT DID YOU DO_?" He howled.

"Let her go!" Number Six shouted but Isaiah lashed out wildly with his paws, striking Six upside the head and knocking him out.

"You poisoned him!" He screamed as he tightened his vice grip around Masters. The young fire dragoness tried to scream but no sound escaped her lips as the hound threatened to choke her to death.

"Nurse! Nurse! We've got an emergency." Thirteen shouted. An adult lightning dragoness was around the corner in an instant looking at the scene in horror. She quickly exhaled a small amount of electricity, shocking Isaiah and knocking him out on the floor. Masters squirmed off the floor, breathing in deep gasps and shivering from her brush with death. The nurse ran over to Bjorn whose snout was painted red in his own blood.

**TO BE CONTINUED!**


	6. Episode 3 Part 2

**Warfang Academy Tower  
>1150, Tuesday<strong>

"Do you think Bjorn was allergic to the medicine?" Omar pondered, scratching at his snout skeptically.

"I highly doubt it." Spyro responded with a shake of his head. "I remember when my friend Sparx had an allergic reaction to a strange mushroom… he broke out in hives and his windpipe collapsed but he certainly wasn't coughing up blood." Spyro could not help but think of his adoptive brother. What was he doing right now? Was he okay? Was he even thinking of Spyro?

"Does anyone even care that that hound nearly killed me?" Masters whined.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say 'no'." Masters whirled around as Xraff walked into the room… or rather, limped awkwardly. He appeared to be a bit tipsy which caused the students in the room to look at each other uneasily. "Thanks to your genius decision making our client is in a magical coma with blood pouring through the walls of his lungs, threatening to drown him."

"Don't we have healers to fix the walls?" Omar asked.

"Of course, but that doesn't mean the process is going to be easy." Thirteen sneered.

"Then perhaps you have an explanation as to why Bjorn reacted the way he did to drinking the solution?" Xraff growled, causing Thirteen to shirk back. "I didn't think so. We need _answers_ people. The Wild Hound tribe is growing restless and I fear that we're slowly loosing our grip over the two brothers."

"Why do we keep assuming they're brothers?" All eyes turned toward Zephyr, whose features were scrunched in discontent. "There's no way in hell they can be related and look so different from one another. Is it really that stupid to think that?"

"Magical mutations explain the differences in their appearance." Voira countered. "Mom explained it to me when I was younger. Twins can be very different from one another if magical energies that mingle during fertilization are mutated by an outside force."

"Oh, don't we sound like the smart one." Moira sneered.

"Bite me, you bitch." Voira hissed.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Enough with the sass." Xraff commanded, causing the twin dragonesses to shut up on the spot. "As much as I loathe the wonder twins they happen to be right in this instance. Isaiah explained that his brother did have magical mutations at birth which kills scarf boy's theory."

"Isaiah told you that?" Zephyr gawked. "B-But that just doesn't seem right."

"I must admit that I'm skeptical also." Zsnafrid piped up. "If he really wants this chief position so badly then he would be trying to sabotage his brother, not defend him as being a legitimate heir for the chief position."

"Then that could only mean…" Number Six gasped.

"He's hiding something." Xraff chuckled bitterly as he completed Six's sentence.

"Why does he have to be hiding something?" Masters rebuffed boldly. Xraff glared at the young dragoness, who gulped as her nerves acted up. "What if he's just trying to be a good brother? Maybe he's defending Bjorn because he feels bad for injuring him and putting him in the infirmary."

"Masters, I think it's past your lunch time." Xraff noted, not paying any attention to her comment.

"But…" Masters attempted to protest but Xraff raised a hand, silencing her.

"I said _go_." Masters's lips trembled slightly and she quickly collected her belongings and scurried out of the room. Xraff turned back to the remainder of the class. "Nineteen, Number One, and the wonder twins will go figure out what this Isaiah is hiding. Scarf Boy can go stew off in a corner about me shooting down his theory and I'm going to go have a drink." And Xraff was out of the room before anyone could raise a protest.

**Cafeteria  
>1230, Tuesday<strong>

Cynder sat alone at a table in the corner. She glanced up at the clock every thirty seconds and soon found herself tapping her tail blade on the ground in impatience. "Where is he?" She groaned. "He promised he would be here." She was so preoccupied with the clock she failed to notice the group of dragons walking up to her.

"What do we have here? A black dragoness; I hear those are pretty rare." Cynder turned around and found herself staring into the broad chest of Sebastian. The earth dragon looked down at her with a cocky smirk plastered on his face. "I'm surprised they're letting you wander around the halls unchained." He joked. Several smaller dragons behind him chuckled.

"What's your problem?" She growled.

"My problem?" Sebastian parroted, a twinge of anger present in his tone. "Is that you think clinging to the purple is enough to make you good in the eyes of this community." He explained. Cynder's eyes widened and Sebastian grinned maliciously. "Don't think changing your size can somehow disguise your identity."

Another earth dragon stepped forward. "You've got some nerve showing your face around here after everything you've done. My brother and sister are _dead_ because of you!"

"I lost my parents before I even hatched and it's all your fault!" A younger fire dragon hissed, tears stinging his eyes. "I want _revenge_!"

"You're making a mistake." Cynder warned. "I don't want to have any problems with anyone."

"You should have thought about that before you chose to work for the Dark Master!" Sebastian hissed and lunged at Cynder. The black dragoness hollered in pain as his huge form crushed her and pinned her down to the ground. "This is for my father, you bitch!" He cried as he bunched his paw up into a fist and punched her square in the snout.

A sickening crunch echoed throughout the cafeteria as Cynder's snout folded inward and blood splurged out of her shattered snout. Cynder wailed in pain as Sebastian picked her up by her neck choker. He whirled around and threw her against a wall. Dragons that had been peacefully eating lunch ran at the sight of the black dragoness and backed up against the opposite wall.

Cynder staggered to her feet; blood pooling up in her nostrils; bruises coating her body. She looked over at Sebastian and his cronies with anger blazing in her eyes. "You…" She hissed, "_I'LL KILL YOU_!" She screamed a battle cry and leaped toward the earth dragon.

"Bring it, Blacky!" He growled, sidestepping her attack and shouldering her with his large hide. Cynder skidded across the floor and turned, spitting a glob of venom toward Sebastian. A young ice dragon stepped in and intercepted the attack with a wave of ice vapor. The frozen venom shattered on the ground and Cynder charged forward once more. Two earth dragons jumped into her path and slammed the ground with their paws. Walls of stone shot upward and Cynder slammed into the stone.

She let out a startled gasp as the air was knocked straight out of her and she dizzily collapsed onto the floor. Sebastian leaped forward and spat an earth bullet at Cynder, sending the black dragoness reeling. Dragons scattered as Cynder slammed into the wall with enough force to put a large dent in it. She collapsed on the ground, struggling to get air into her lungs. She was sure she had fractured a rib.

"Give it up, Blacky!" Sebastian sneered. "It's all of us against one of you. You're hosed any way you look at it." He confidently scoffed. Tears welled up in Cynder's eyes. There was absolutely nothing she could do about the situation. Her only thoughts were toward Spyro. Where could he have gone? How could he have ditched her and left her to the sea of raging students?

"What in the ancestors' names is going on in here?" A voice thundered. All eyes in the room turned to the earth elder Gaius as he marched forward, observing the scene with a wild look in his eyes. "Who is responsible for this?"

"It was the black!" Sebastian blurted out, pointing to Cynder. "She attacked my friends out of nowhere and thankfully we were able to stop her."

"Th-That's a lie!" Cynder wheezed. "They attacked me and I was merely trying to defend myself." She turned to the other dragons that had observed the fighting and looked at them with pleading eyes. "Right?" The dragons remained silent; many of them looked guiltily at the floor. "I swear, I'm telling the truth!"

"I think I've heard enough, Miss Cynder." Gaius growled. He motioned toward the door with a talon. "Follow me, _now_." Cynder slowly and shamefully slinked out of the room amidst the snickers and hisses from Sebastian and his thugs.

_Spyro, how could you do this to me?_

**Infirmary  
>1215, Tuesday<strong>

"How dare you come back here after your coworkers nearly killed my brother." Isaiah coldly growled.

"Relax, we're not here to run any tests." Spyro coaxed in an assuring tone.

"You expect me to believe you after your friends lied about the harmlessness of the reagent?" Isaiah accused hotly.

"Y-You are being too hard on them… brother." A voice softly rasped from behind him. Everyone looked to see Bjorn's eyes flutter open slowly. "How could anyone have known I would react the… way I did to the reagent."

"Brother; I am trying to protect you! How could you give sympathy to these brutes? They nearly did you in like they did to father." Isaiah snarled.

"It was… not their fault." Bjorn gulped.

"You can't say that. Who's to say they did not tamper with your portion of the reagent before I gave it to you." Isaiah accused. "You are being an overly compassionate, incompetent nut job!"

"And you are being a brash, cold-hearted brute." Bjorn spat. "Is that how you want to be known by the tribe? As a dictatorial, shoot first and ask questions later, snob?"

"It's better than being a naïve, spineless coward who cares not about his own family!" Isaiah rebuked, baring his fangs. "You never dish out punishment where it is due. You always think you can reason your way through situations. But I guarantee you, brother, that will not work if you are to become chief."

Voira and Moira looked at each other with nervous glances. "Th-They fight just like we do." Voira whispered. Moira nodded sadly.

"Actually, we've come to ask you some questions about your parents." Zsnafrid piped up.

"Is there a problem?" Bjorn pondered with skeptical raised eyebrows.

"We think your brother is hiding something. Possibly some information that could help us with our investigation." Spyro mumbled with a guilty look.

"Do you see now why I accuse them, Bjorn?" Isaiah growled. "First they try to off you and now they're accusing me of hiding evidence! I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to simply take control of our clan."

"Dr. Xraff found it very… curious that you are 'defending' your brother so tightly if you're both competing for the same position." Spyro explained. "It's somewhat suspicious seeing as you want to be chief so badly, Isaiah." Spyro looked sadly down at his own feet. "If there's anything you want to own up to… now would be an excellent time to confess."

Bjorn looked at his brother with curiosity. Isaiah's snout was scrunched up in obvious disgust. "You are obviously making baseless accusations." He grunted.

"Like you are making baseless accusations toward the dragons?" Bjorn growled.

"My accusations are not baseless! They had the reagent for an extended period of time before I got my paws on it; they had to have tampered with it. I'm certain of it." Isaiah exclaimed. He turned to Bjorn and spat, "For someone who doesn't want to work with dragons you are showing them a lot of compassion."

"Father always taught us to treat both friends and enemies with compassion as that is the key to keeping peace." Bjorn calmly responded.

"And how did that work out for father?" Isaiah howled. "Oh wait… he's _dead_! Open your eyes, brother. The world isn't as nice a place as you make it out to be sometimes. There are cruel creatures that do cruel things for cruel reasons. As chief, it's our job to protect the tribe from this cruelty. I fear you have yet to learn that." Isaiah turned his back on his brother.

Voira and Moira watched the scene unfolding with horror. Spyro cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. "If there's nothing else to discuss then, we're going to take our leave." Bjorn nodded and slowly closed his eyes, and was asleep again within seconds. Isaiah turned to look at his brother, turning his back on the dragons as they left. He failed to notice a certain scarf-wearing dragon creeping out of the shadows. Zephyr reached under his scarf and pulled out a needle and syringe.

He lunged at Isaiah. The Wild Hound had no time to react as Zephyr stabbed him with the needle and depressed the plunger. Isaiah's body went slack and he was soon passed out on the floor. Zephyr walked over to the cabinet at Bjorn's bedside and opened it. There were two small liquid containers and two needles. He walked up to the slumbering Bjorn and tapped the needle. "Now you're going to feel a slight pinch…"

XxX

"Th-They were so similar to us." Moira whispered. "Did you see how they were at each other's throats? And all because they wanted that leadership position so badly." Moira looked sadly at the ground and her lips quivered slightly. "Sis, is that what's waiting for us?"

"What do you mean?"

"These games… Xraff's little contest has been making us bicker a lot more." Moira noted. Voira nodded solemnly. "You don't think he's trying to tear us apart, is he?"

"I'm really not sure." Voira whispered, her mind racing to try and piece together everything that transpired. "B-But if one of us winds up being guardian, then they'll have to stay in Warfang."

"So we would have to split up." Moira observed. "But I don't want to leave you. We're the only ones who truly understand each other."

"I think Xraff's trying to split us up." Voira groaned. "I don't know if he has some personal vendetta against twin siblings but I can tell he has an intense dislike of us."

"What should we do?"

"I… I don't know." Voira squealed, her voice cracking slightly. "But one's things for certain… I don't want to lose you too."

**Staff Lounge  
>1310, Tuesday<strong>

"I didn't start the fight; you have to believe me." Cynder begged. She was practically on her knees as an irritated Gaius paced back and forth across the carpeted floor. "They ganged up on me. I was outnumbered. There was really nothing I could do!"

"I wish I could believe that." Gaius grunted. "But there are _multiple_ accounts that state otherwise. And given your… _violent_ past history I'm inclined to believe those accounts." He begrudgingly added.

"I've moved on from that." Cynder sharply countered. "I'm telling you the truth. Sebastian instigated everything." She paused, and then also added, "Ask Spyro, he can back me up."

"I'm not about to go interrupting the purple dragon's studies so that he can vouch for a friend… especially when he wasn't even present at the sight during the event." Gaius huffed angrily.

"But he was _going_ to be there! He must've just had some sort of emergency." Cynder pleaded. "He was going to introduce me to a couple of his classmates. I swear that's the story. But then Sebastian and his stupid friends showed up and ruined everything."

"Once again, you have absolutely no evidence to back up your claims." Gaius intoned. It was clear from his tone of voice that he was not going to budge on this issue no matter how much Cynder begged with him or pleaded with him. "Whatever your problems with Sebastian you cannot lay a paw on him or wound him unless you are in arena combat. And even then I doubt it will happen as we are trying to avoid opposite genders fighting one another in the arena."

"This is bullshit." Cynder spat.

"Mind your poison tongue, young dragoness." Gaius hissed. "I sentence you to 15 hours community service for instigating a fight."

"No way!" Cynder gasped.

"You are dismissed." Gaius huffed and turned his back on the black dragoness. She sat there with a stunned expression on her face. How could this have happened? Things were spiraling out of control incredibly fast, that was for sure.

**Warfang Academy Corridors  
>That Same Time<strong>

"After a stunt like that I don't think anyone's going to cross us." Sebastian sniggered. Gennady's brow furrowed in annoyance.

"You could have at least told me what you were doing before you provoked her." The large ice dragon growled in an irritated tone. "I would have made sure that Cynder couldn't fight back."

"And what's so wrong about the way I did things?" Sebastian inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"She still has a fighting spirit left. I could see it in her eyes when Gaius led her out." Gennady grunted. "Rest assured she's going to figure out a way to hit back at you… hard."

"We can take her." Hydrous piped up, puffing his chest out boldly. "All of us against her… It'll be a snap."

"Perhaps, but we should at least be satisfied with what we accomplished." Gennady cautioned. "We have shown the entire school our ferocity by standing up to the Terror of the Skies and beating her down. No one will cross us now."

"Except for the purple." Kaiser squeaked. Gennady's large tail whipped around and smacked Kaiser upside the head.

"The purple will have some serious girl issues to content with." Gennady gleefully exclaimed. "Now that we've humiliated Cynder she's bound to take her frustration out on him. Between his bitchy girlfriend and his fire guardian training he won't even register on our radar."

"You speak so confidently." Kaiser mumbled.

"Ha!" Sebastian threw his head back in a laugh. "We've got the purple on ice as far as I'm concerned. After the beat down we gave to his girlfriend he won't _dare_ to try and cross us."

"And besides, if he does, we can always make use of a couple of willing _volunteers_." Gennady looked over his shoulder at the two dragonesses commiserating with one another. "You've heard their conversations; they want the purple badly. If we unchain our little nuances then we can create the most convoluted love triangle in the whole academy."

"Maybe we can push it far enough to get purple kicked out." Sebastian noted.

"It's a win-win situation from where I'm standing." Gennady bragged. "We're climbing up the social ladder and soon the whole school will know to fear us."

**Warfang Academy Tower  
>1345, Tuesday<strong>

"You went soft on them… that's your problem." Xraff groaned as he glared at the dragons in front of him with disappointment. "The only way that you can get results is to be a hard ass and you all failed miserably."

"I think Masters was actually right, Xraff." Zsnafrid countered. "Isaiah seemed to be protecting his brother from what he called a 'cruel and unforgiving world.' It seems perfectly logical to me."

"I disagree." Voira hotly interjected. "Isaiah seemed _incredibly_ offended when we said he might be hiding something. That can only mean he lied to us."

"The whole thing seems like a façade to me." Spyro grunted in annoyance. "The one who claims to not want to work with the dragons is treating us with the utmost respect but the one who wants to work with us is treating us like shit." He rubbed his temples and shook his head. "Are we approaching this from the wrong angle?"

"There's a piece missing to this puzzle." Moira added. "Some dark little bit from their pasts that can connect the dots on our little mystery."

"Well standing her debating about it isn't going to get us any results." Ike finally spoke up. "Maybe we should run with Zephyr's idea about them not actually being brothers."

"Yeah, maybe Isaiah is using some kinda freaky reverse psychology to throw us off." Zsnafrid added.

"No need to run with the idea, guys." A loud voice thundered across the room. All eyes turned to watch as Zephyr confidently strolled into the room. "I was right."

"How so?" Spyro inquired skeptically.

"I took blood samples from both of the hounds when you all left. Isaiah is part _Death_ Hound. It explains the smaller stature." Zephyr explained with a triumphant grin.

"But then why is it that Isaiah bears such a striking resemblance to the father?" Moira gasped.

"Wait a second… are you thinking the chief isn't actually the father?" Zsnafrid gawked.

"Obviously not." Xraff interjected. "The reason he looks so much like the father is because the chief is the father. Unfortunately he decided to have an affair with a Death Hound after he knocked up his _actual_ mate. All of his Wild Hound genes masked the recessive Death Hound genes in the maiden explaining why Isaiah looks similar to his father. The father is embarrassed by the affair and kills his original wife for disobedience so the affair can continue without raising any skeptical eyebrows. But the wife already gave birth to Bjorn so the father convinces the entire tribe he got twin sons so nobody goes around asking questions."

"You knew this entire time?" Zephyr's jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Of course I did… I wanted to see if you had the balls to undermine the rest of your peers and go conduct these tests without anyone else knowing." Xraff scoffed. He fiddled with his cane and added, "Evidently, you succeeded which is good news for all of us."

"Not quite." Omar pessimistically pointed out. "We still don't know who's the legitimate heir to the chief position."

"Actually Xraff pointed it out in his explanation." Spyro exclaimed. "Bjorn was already born while the maiden was still pregnant." Spyro looked at Xraff and then frowned, "Isaiah had to have known this and pretended to protect his brother so we wouldn't conduct any testing on their DNA."

"Then he lied to us?" Masters frowned.

"So much for your 'everyone's a good, noble person' theory." Xraff scoffed. Masters looked at Xraff with a shocked expression.

"You knew about all of this and yet you didn't tell us?" She squeaked, her voice cracking slightly. "That's so… so… so…"

"Like a teacher." Ike interposed. "The whole point of being able to learn is coming to conclusions on your own. Xraff wanted to put our problem solving abilities to the test and therefore withheld everything that he knew from us."

"That's completely unethical!" Masters protested.

"Well it quite obviously worked, because Scarf Boy was able to come up with the correct answer." Xraff's lips curved upward in a malicious grin. "Now the question that you should be asking yourself is: 'why couldn't I get the right answer'?" Masters's lip trembled slightly.

"But what about the statements he made about wanting to work with the dragons and his brother not wanting to? Was that a lie as well?" Masters looked at Xraff with pleading eyes.

"The only ones who could answer that question are in the infirmary… probably passed out from the sedatives Scarf Boy pumped into their systems." Xraff stood up from his desk. "Alright class, we're going on a little field trip." And he lumbered out the room with the dragons quickly following him.

XxX

"The blood tests confirmed it; you're half-brothers." Zephyr smugly stated.

"I do not believe this." Bjorn gawked. Isaiah looked on with wide eyes and a furious, rage filled glare.

"You drew blood without my permission! This is an outrage!" Isaiah howled. "I want to press charges! I want you thrown out of your precious little academy. You have violated my privacy…"

"You knew, didn't you?" Bjorn looked at his brother with eyes full of sadness. "You knew and yet you never told me the truth?"

"OF COURSE I KNEW!" Isaiah snarled. "Are you truly that naïve of an individual that you would think we were full on brothers? _Twin brothers_? I knew father was lying just like he had lied about many things to the both of us. So I got him drunk and he rambled on about the stupid affair he had with that stupid Death Hound!" He explained.

"But why would you not tell me?" Bjorn mumbled, trying to piece together a logical explanation.

"Because I would loose my credibility in the tribe! I am a mutant freak but I wanted to be chief. I would do anything in my power to ensure that _nobody_ found out about this." He growled. "That is why I slipped father a slow acting poison a year ago. To ensure that the only one who knew my nasty secret was _eliminated_."

"_YOU_ killed him? You're the one responsible for this?" Bjorn gasped. "How could you do such a thing? He was your… _our_ father!" The hound cried.

"Because nothing in this world matters except power!" Isaiah hissed. "Never was I respected or accepted amongst our tribe. They would always rant about how much of a failure I was and how disappointed father should be in me. I wanted to show everyone that I was worth a damn. I wanted to be chief! Then everyone would have respected me. They would have respected me or they _would have died_!" The mutant hound cackled.

Bjorn shook his head in disappointment. "That was your mistake, brother. You thought that you could use fear and anger to get people to listen to you. But the key to winning admiration is compassion and understanding." The older hound gulped. "You must show empathy toward your fellow sentient beings. Only when you have bonded on that level of understanding can you finally be respected and admired as a leader."

"No… it is _you_ who are wrong." Isaiah spewed angrily. "You think that people are good-natured and that they all deserve second chances. Compassion is not the key to winning anything. Show compassion to people and they will walk over you like a welcome mat. You were so busy being compassionate you didn't realize that your own brother slipped poison into the aging reagent!" The entire room went silent.

"You didn't…" Master gasped.

"I _did_. I had the opportunity to ensure my place as chief so I slipped some poisonous fluid into his reagent when I swiped it out of your petty little hands!" Isaiah hissed. "It was supposed to erode your heart and kill you!" He growled in frustration. "How it redirected to your lungs will haunt me for the rest of eternity."

"I don't believe this!" Zsnafrid exclaimed. "How could you try to kill your own half-brother?"

"Because he stood in the way of the chief position, that's why!" Isaiah spat. He turned to Xraff. "And _you_… you and your _stupid_ little posse of dragons. You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?"

"The guardians told me to intervene." Xraff stated in an emotionless tone. "And I do not disobey orders from the guardians."

Isaiah looked around the room at all the faces watching him with disgust. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAARGH!" He howled a battle cry and leaped toward the window. He shattered the glass and tumbled out onto the ground and was sprinting into the woods in an instant.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Masters cried.

"No… let my brother go." Bjorn rasped. "He no longer has a home. Hopefully his journey through the forest will give him time to reflect on the decisions he has made recently."

"You realize that you're the chief of your tribe now, correct?" Xraff pointed out. Bjorn's lips curved upward in a bittersweet smile.

"It is an honor… but at what price did it come? The destruction of my family…" He looked out the window. "It is tragic, but I know I will move on from this turbulent experience."

"Very good," Xraff acknowledged with a curt nod. "As for all the scaly four-legged reptiles in the room, let's meet up in the tower."

**Warfang Academy Tower  
>1500, Tuesday<strong>

"And so we come to the end of your first case." Xraff sarcastically congratulated as he kicked back in his chair and placed his feet up on his desk. "Do we have any thoughts about what went down?"

Voira and Moira looked at one another. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Moira whispered.

"If it means saving our relationship… absolutely." Voira said with a nod. The twin dragonesses got to their feet and slowly approached Xraff as if they were in a funeral march. Voira took a deep breath and Xraff raised an eyebrow in interest. "We quit," She stated flatly.

"We saw what competing for power did to those Wild Hounds." Moira concurred. "We don't want to suffer the same fate."

"Perfectly reasonable; you are family after all." Xraff waved off the comments. "Exactly why I picked this particular case."

"Wait… what?" Moira's jaw dropped in astonishment.

"You both made the decision to go for this position despite being family… that was a mistake." Xraff's tone was incredibly serious. "I needed to show you what would happen once the vice of power was planted inside your heads and this case was the perfect opportunity to do that."

"You set us up." Voira observed.

"Correct," Xraff confessed with raised hands.

"You're an ass." Moira hissed. She turned on a dime and stuck her snout up in the air. "C'mon, sis, let's leave these brutes and have some real fun." The two sisters immediately dashed out of the room, talking to one another and laughing lightheartedly.

"Well then, now that that's over with," Xraff turned to face the small group of remaining dragons. "I'm splitting you up into groups so I can evaluate you all better. You'll alternate working cases which'll give you plenty of free time." He exclaimed. "Number One, Omar, Masters and Scarf Boy… I'll see you bright and early tomorrow." He ordered. The purple dragon looked at the yellow-orange dragoness and the cinnabar dragon and slowly nodded. "Next, we have Thirteen, Nineteen Number Six, and Grumpy." Ike raised his head and gave Xraff an angry glare at the nickname.

"Why do I have to be Number Six?" Six growled defiantly.

"You haven't earned enough of my respect to warrant calling you anything else, _Number Six_." Xraff scoffed. Six grit his teeth in irritation.

"I want to be called by my proper name… Johan." He warned. Xraff rolled his eyes.

"Whatever… will you all just leave now? I'd like to go take a nap and you're cutting into my beauty sleep." The dragons all got to their feet and exited the room, collecting their belongings and exchanging annoyed looks. "Oh, and Scarf Boy," Xraff called out. Zephyr turned to look at the pseudo elf with an exasperated look. "Nice work."

"Thanks," Zephyr replied. As he left the room he then muttered under his breath, "I think…"

XxX

Spyro decided to go left out of the room instead of right that would lead to the boys' dormitories. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and he knew why. He had promised Cynder he would meet up with her at lunch but never ended up going because Xraff sent him down to the infirmary to deal with the hounds. Spyro had anticipated Cynder would try to intercept him somewhere on his path and decided to for a little stroll first in an effort to shake off Cynder.

He had not, however, expected to hear sobbing and hiccupping as he descended the long staircase from the tower. Intrigued, Spyro slowly crept forward, curious as to who was in such distress that they had been reduced to tears. Spyro's eyes widened as a black dragoness appeared curled up in the corner. She was covered in bruises and her snout was broken. Semi-solidified dragon blood painted her snout and her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying.

"C-Cynder?" Spyro gasped. "What happened to you?"

"What happened?" She parroted with a sniffle. She looked up at Spyro, anger burning in her eyes. "What happened is that you fucking _ditched_ me and left me to get pounded on by that asshole Sebastian and his little legion of followers!" She hissed.

"Sebastian did this to you?" He exclaimed in surprise. "How? Why?"

"Because I was right." Cynder broke into hysterics again. "Everyone remembers my past and they want me dead for what I did under Malefor."

"But you've changed!" Spyro protested.

"But they don't think that." Cynder growled. "That's why I needed you, Spyro. I needed you to show them that I'm not a monster." She paused and looked at him with a sense of defeat in her gaze. "You abandoned me."

"I didn't abandon you!" Spyro argued. "Xraff had me doing training and I couldn't leave."

"Bullshit!" She spat. Spyro's chest was lightly coated with red, sticky blood and he looked at Cynder with wide eyes. "There's a whole class of them; I'm sure you easily could have ditched them for me."

"Cynder I tried… I really did try. You have to believe me." Spyro pleaded.

"Just like everyone believed I didn't start that fight? Just like everyone believed that I changed?" She responded with rhetorical questions.

"Cyn, I'm sorry. But I can make it up to you." Spyro begged. Cynder looked away, biting her lip. Tears stung her eyes once more.

"No, Spyro, you can't." She muttered acidly. "You've made your decision, I can see it in your eyes."

"N-No, Cynder. You don't need to do anything this drastic!" Spyro was practically on his knees begging for respite.

"Spyro, it's obvious at this point." Cynder hissed. "Don't you see? You haven't let go of Ignitus. You've become obsessed with holding onto his legacy by trying to win the fire guardian position."

"That's not true and I can prove it!" Spyro huffed defiantly.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Cynder snorted, contempt dripping from her voice. "You already tried that once and look how things ended up for me." She stood up to show the full extent of her injuries and Spyro could not help but cringe. "I'm being bullied Spyro. Unless you plan on standing up to Sebastian and Gennady then there's _nothing_ you can do to help me."

"That's not true Cynder. I can still support you." Spyro argued back boldly.

"Spyro, wake up!" Cynder screamed and lashed out with her wing barbs. Spyro jumped back, barely avoiding the attack. "Can't you see that I'm helpless here? I feel absolutely powerless and those… those _bastards_ have taken away my sense of security." Cynder's breathing rapidly increased and a memory pushed its way to the front of her mind. Her eyes widened…

_Her large, thin form lay on the ground. Her body was covered in deep gashes and bruises; a result of her attempt to break free. Tears flowed freely down her face as the figure stood towering over her, laughing at her helplessness. "You should have known not to cross me." The figure gloated amidst his laughing. Cynder lifted her upper body, supporting it with trembling front limbs and looked back with a mixture of shock and horror. Blood trickled down her tail and left hind leg._

"_Why…?" She rasped._

"_You need to know your place in this world." The figure responded. "You needed to realize that you are powerless. Everything you have is thanks to me." The figure continued. Cynder collapsed on the floor once again, her tears pooling in a puddle. The figure turned its back and walked off laughing nefariously._

Cynder's field of vision was purple and her brain screamed to attack the strange entity. "C-Cyn?" Spyro asked. "You okay?"

"No… It can't happen again!" Without warning she screamed as loud as possible. Spyro staggered backward with wide eyes; his blood practically turned to water and his bones rattled in his form. Cynder lashed out with her tail and Spyro wailed in pain as she left a profound slash in the purple dragon's chest. "_Stay away from me you monster_!" She cried before bolting down the hallway, sobbing hysterically.

"Cynder… no… I'm sorry." Spyro wheezed before collapsing on the ground from blood loss.

**Please review… it would be greatly appreciated!**

**Episode Three Written & Edited by**

BestNotes

**Character Contributors**

Jon Westman (Sebastian)

Mark Bayer (Hydrous)

Vanessa Stein (Kaiser)

Jay Anderson (Zephyr)

Devin Schafer (Johan)

Angela Dawes (Omar)

Douglas R. Langdon (Ike)

Blaze406 (Number Thirteen)

and Vlad Johnson (Gennady)

**Episode Created by BestNotes & Vlad Johnson**


	7. Episode 4

_**No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.**_

_**- Barbara de Angelis **_

**Warfang Academy Gardens  
>Tuesday, 4 September<br>1900 Hours**

Zsnafrid took a deep breath of crisp, cool evening air. The sun had gone down below the horizon but there was still a pinkish tint to the sky. He looked out over the expansive gardens with a satisfactory grin. Zsnafrid glanced over his shoulder at his close friend and companion, Jadallah Zuwayy. The wind dragon was sitting in a meditative position humming contently to himself. "The conditions are just right to go out for a little evening stroll. What do you say, Jada?"

"I say that our curfew is in an hour and I'm not looking to get myself into any trouble on the second day of classes." Zuwayy responded with a cautious glance at his friend. Zsnafrid could not help but put on a goofy grin.

"You worry too much. You think the staff can be everywhere at once?" Zsnafrid inquired. "We're not going to get caught out after curfew, I can promise that." Zuwayy cracked an eye open, appearing completely unconvinced by his friend's assurances. "Please Jada; just come with me."

"Fine, but only because I want to stretch out the cramps in my legs. I've been sitting so long they've fallen dead asleep." Zuwayy scoffed. The two dragons got up and began a slow trot through the gardens. Various floras dotted the grassy fields and bushes lined the edges of the stone walkway. An impressive array of colors laid itself out before Zsnafrid and Zuwayy. The aromas of different flowers grazed their nostrils, leaving a tickling sensation.

"See, this isn't so bad, is it?" Zsnafrid exclaimed. The two young dragons came to the edge of the academy grounds. They looked out over the expansive city of Warfang. Candles danced and flickered in the evening twilight. The city was bathed in a soft orange glow. "Wow… it's magnificent."

"Certainly nothing like the caves back in the desert." Zuwayy acknowledged. "_Na'am_, it would have been great to have lived hear back in the peak of our race's days." He added.

"I suppose so." Zsnafrid responded. He seemed to gaze longingly into the city and a sense of wonder and curiosity flared up in his eyes. "We should totally go down and check it out."

"A-At night? Are you _majnun_? Are you crazy? Who knows what could be down there?" Zuwayy gasped in astonishment.

"It would be an adventure." Zsnafrid exclaimed, his eyes burning with wonder and amazement. His adventurous personality was in full swing, causing Zuwayy to gulp in discomfort.

"M-Maybe another day, Zsnafrid." Zuwayy whispered hesitantly.

"Oh come on, Jada, don't be such a stick in the mud!" Zsnafrid teased. "We'd be perfectly okay. Plus you'd have me there." He puffed his chest out boldly.

"I'm not reassured." Zuwayy stated bitterly. "All I'm saying is that one day we are going to wind up _mait_ because of your adventures." He warned darkly. Zsnafrid appeared hurt by his friend's comment and looked away with a disappointed sigh. Suddenly the sound of footsteps graced their senses and they turned around to see a small posse of dragons walking through the gardens.

"Hello? What's this?" The lead dragon, Gennady, raised an eye in surprise. "A couple of little gay lovebirds out for a midnight stroll?"

"Hey, Jada, get a load of the airhead." Zsnafrid stated loudly as if he was ignoring the large ice dragon. "I'm surprised he doesn't just vent out a ton of steam when he opens that big fat maw of his."

"Zsnafrid," Zuwayy warned silently but Gennady's eyes had already widened in rage.

"What was that, runt?" He growled at the fire dragon as he craned his large, muscular neck down to meet Zsnafrid eye to eye. "I don't think I quite heard you clearly enough. But it almost sounded like you were insulting me."

"He called you an airhead." Kaiser scoffed. "I can't even believe the nerve of him."

"So what if I called you an airhead?" Zsnafrid growled. "You are an airhead from where I'm standing. You think you're some awesome piece of meat don't you? Well I bet you your dick's so small your mate constantly has to ask if it's in while you're doing it." The fire dragon taunted with a cocky, confident smirk. Gennady's jaw almost hit the floor and a couple of his cronies chuckled at the comment.

"Zsnafrid," Zuwayy mumbled, worry filling his voice. "Don't push it any farther." He warned.

"Do you kiss your parents with that poison tongue?" Gennady hissed threateningly.

"My parents are _dead_, asshole." Zsnafrid growled back, baring his fangs in an effort to appear intimidating. "Cynder killed them. And from what I heard you guys really tore into her today. Is that your solution to everything? Slice it up like an onion? Because I can tell you that's definitely not going to win you any fans any time soon." He laughed.

"Why you little cunt face!" Gennady howled in rage. "You just signed your own death warrant!"

"Really? I don't see you attacking me. You're not challenging me to a duel. Somehow I think I'm going to live just fine." Zsnafrid countered with his cocky smile. "I'd say _you're_ the one who's scared, jerk."

"I'm not going to duel you. I'm going to take everything you know and love and I'm going to crush it!" Gennady threatened. "You're going to regret ever opening your mouth, whelp." He turned around and snorted small icicles into the air. He started to stomp away, his gang giving chase.

"I'd like to see you try to ruin my life!" Zsnafrid challenged back. "Coward!"

"Boss, are you going to let him say that." One small water dragon whispered.

"For now," Gennady sneered, "but we're going to make sure that his fighting spirit is ripped apart and buried six feet under. And the key is that sniveling gray dragon that was following him around."

**Fallujah Desert  
>Tuesday, 4 September<br>2300 Hours**

Their lips met for one final, passionate kiss as they rolled off of one another. Their hearts were racing and sweat cascaded down their bodies, causing them to glisten under the light of the stars. The female, a young emerald green dragoness with a shimmering silver pendant around her neck, slowly lifted her upper body, perching her head on one of her paws. "That… was incredible." She whispered.

"I'm really glad I could share this moment with you." The male, a dark blue dragon with five sets of long, thin horns, responded in a deep basso voice. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this."

"But I think I made it worth the wait, didn't it?" She growled seductively, stroking his backside with a single talon.

"Definitely," The male exclaimed with a satisfied grin. The female sighed contently. "Something on your mind?"

"It's just… for the first time in my life I actually feel happy. My stupid dad isn't intervening in my personal business and I'm free to do what I want." She leaned over and pecked the male on the cheek. "And I'm free to love whoever I want."

"I'm really relieved to hear that." The male acknowledged. He suddenly sat up. Hay was plastered across his sweaty form and he tried unsuccessfully to brush some of it off. "But what are we going to do about your father? What if he finds out what we did?"

"I don't think I can let him find out." The female responded, agitation present in her tone. She thought to herself for a moment. "We need to get away from here." She suddenly remarked. The exclamation caught the male off guard and he raised both eyebrows in astonishment.

"You're willing to do that? To leave your lifestyle and forsake your entire inheritance?" The male gasped. He suddenly shook his head. "No, Felicity I can't let you do that. You're a good dragoness and you deserve your father's inheritance."

"I _hate_ my father, Massoud." Felicity huffed defiantly. "I'm more than willing to give up all my treasures and start over if it means getting away from the asshole and finally being happy for once in my life."

"But where would we be able to go?" Massoud pondered skeptically. "Where could we go and not be recognized by someone? We need somewhere that will accept our love for what it is; pure and not arranged."

"Warfang is the answer." Felicity boldly proclaimed. "We can head for that new academy and ask the guardians for protection. It's our right as two dragons. We can ask for sovereignty and independence. If the guardians recognize it, it's bound to be law."

"So let's take flight!" Massoud exclaimed.

"Hang on, I just want to be alone with you for a little while longer." Felicity purred and snuggled up next to the dark blue dragon.

XxX

"I speak on behalf of the largest contingency of Wild Hounds on this hemisphere when I say you are making a grave mistake, _sir_." The tall man seated at one end of the ornate crystal table warned menacingly. His light-skinned, bald head glistened in the light of glowing green crystals and his black tinted glasses stood in complete contrast to his white head. His short brown beard ran down the edges of his chin but was surprisingly well kept. The man smoked a cigarette, wisps of smoke curling up from his mouth. He was garbed in a dark collared shirt and had a tattered trench coat draped over him like some for of cape.

"The only mistake I make is commiserating with you, Mr. Shenzon." A burly gray wind dragon huffed in an annoyed tone. He gave off an air of extreme importance and that the man seated opposite him was beneath his _precious_ time. "My people need this oil for energy. You fail to realize how much energy is required to live in these catacombs."

"You would uproot an entire population – a significant portion of the Wild Hound species – for _oil_?" Shenzon snarled. "You are as selfish a bastard as they come. I can't believe you care so little about such a precious ecosystem."

"Preserving ecosystems will not supply me a continuous stream of profit." The gray dragon snarled. "Supplying my people with what they need is."

"You have surpluses of oil in this God forsaken desert!" Shenzon argued. "I say again… what drives you to commit environmental _genocide_?"

"You are not nearly important enough to receive the proper answer." The gray dragon spoke condescendingly. "You are but a pauper and an insignificant rat living amongst brutish Wild Hounds. Hear me now, Mr. Shenzon, I care not about puny creatures who still walk the land despite their former allegiance to Malefor. I care about the dragons and that we continue to thrive even through all the hardships of a post-war world."

Shenzon clenched his fist and a vein seemed to pop up along his shiny white scalp. "You've made a terrible mistake." He hissed in a deep undertone. "I thought an esteemed businessman like yourself would hold slightly higher morals than the rest of your _filthy_ kind but I was clearly mistaken."

"So we're done here?" The gray dragon snorted. He turned around so his back was to Shenzon. "Then leave my presence. Tell your _stupid_ mutts to pack their things. My company will be drilling by week's end." There was no response, so the dragon looked over his shoulder. To his surprise, Shenzon had already stormed out of the room. "Pathetic," The dragon scoffed. Suddenly the door to the conference room flew open and a serious-looking younger gray dragon dashed into the room.

"Mr. Rahim, we have a problem." He announced.

"Out with it, Mr. O'Neill." Rahim spat.

"We received word that your daughter has fled the colony, sir." O'Neill grunted. "She was seen in the presence of some male dragon around her own age."

"_WHAT?_" Rahim roared and swung at the air with his massive paws. "How _dare_ she disobey me? After everything I've given her she's gone and run off with that _street rat_." He turned to O'Neill. "You must go to Warfang at once. Alert the guardians. My daughter must be returned or the future of my family's name will be _ruined_." He howled in rage.

"Right away, Mr. Rahim." O'Neill saluted and was out the door in an instant.

XxX

Shenzon walked slowly across the desert sand. Mountains loomed off in the distance and a harsh wind ripped through the evening air. Footsteps graced his ears and he turned over his shoulder. "Do you come bearing good news?" He turned to ask the Wild Hound as he approached it. "Because I must tell you I have no tolerance for anything less than you being the new tribal chief."

Isaiah looked down at the ground in dismay. "My brother was chosen as chief." He rasped. "I did everything in my power but a certain dragon was responsible for my ultimate demise."

Shenzon's brow furrowed. "This is certainly less than satisfying news. But luckily I was prepared for the possibility that you would ultimately fail me, hound." He stated in a slightly more upbeat tone.

"W-What do you mean?" Isaiah gasped. "How could you possibly have foreseen anything like this?"

"You have failed a multitude of times, of this I'm well aware." Shenzon explained. "And you have reneged on many deals."

"What does that have to do with anything, Azjerbach?" Isaiah growled in frustration. "Are you calling me two-faced? I have shown you unswerving loyalty and you dare to question my commitment? Give me one reason why I shouldn't strike you down?" The crackling of blue electricity filled Isaiah's vision and his eyes widened. Azjerbach Shenzon had turned around and had lightning moving about his gloved hands, casting a blue glow onto the hound.

"How about I give you a _hundred_ good reasons?" Shenzon growled. "We had a deal, Isaiah. A deal that you reneged on, I might add. Tell me why, despite all the resources I provided you, you failed in your assignment?"

"Some stupid dragon got a sample of my blood while my back was turned." Isaiah growled in reply. The lightning suddenly subsided in intensity and Isaiah stared curiously at the man before him. "He was a fire dragon… and his name started with Z… he was conceited." Isaiah continued.

"I should have known the dragons would stick their snouts into this mess. They never do miss an opportunity to exert their power and influence." Shenzon hissed bitterly. "I can no longer tolerate this barbaric behavior. The dragons _must_ be punished for their transgressions against all others."

"But Azjerbach, there's a purple amongst them!" Isaiah blurted out. Shenzon's black sunglasses flickered in the twilight and a hint of a smirk appeared on his features. "They say he was so strong he defeated Malefor and saved the world from ruin!"

"A purple, you say?" Shenzon parroted with an eager tone. "Well, perhaps this _does_ make things very interesting after all." He spun around, his coat fluttering in the wind. "But he is still just an indecent dragon. There is darkness lurking in his heart and if I cannot kill him… then I will just knock him off his pedestal."

"I'm afraid you've lost me, Shenzon." Isaiah fumed. "What's this about a pedestal?"

"ENOUGH!" Shenzon's hands crackled with electricity and Isaiah whimpered, shying away from the strange man. "I was mistaken to have placed my faith in you, you worthless, miserable excuse for a fleabag." Shenzon spat out the insults with contempt dripping from his voice. "I wanted an agent planted within the dragon ranks and you came up a failure, Isaiah."

"If you would just give me a chance! I'm sure I can sway a dragon to your cause, Azjerbach!" Isaiah protested, his voice filled with genuine fear and his eyes wide.

"Fool!" Shenzon hissed. "If there's anything… _anything_ you need to learn it's that no dragon can be trusted. They are wretched, murderous creatures who sit above their tall towers and catacombs sneering at any 'lesser creature'." Shenzon hissed acidly. "But if I've learned one thing over the years it's that any problem can be eliminated with the right amount of tenacity."

"What are you saying?"

"Malefor was right to try and destroy this wretched world." Shenzon proclaimed as he brought a glowing hand up and clenched it into a fist. "But his reasoning was all wrong. I will seek the destruction of all dragons. Only then will this world truly come alive… alive with chaos and _darkness_."

"You're mad!" Isaiah contested. Wisps of electricity gathered in an orb floating above Shenzon's hand and morphed into the form of a blade. Shenzon whirled around and hurled the blade as hard as he could. Isaiah had no time to react; no scream could escape his lips as the blade lodged itself in the hound's windpipe. The hound collapsed on the ground, thrashing wildly in pain. Shenzon stood with his back to the hound, examining the electricity manifesting through his fingertips. In a matter of moments, Isaiah gave a dying cough and stopped convulsing.

"This world is riddled with sin." Shenzon spoke into the gusting winds. "Light cannot resolve these transgressions. That is the mistake of the dragons. Only with darkness can we begin anew! I will seek out this darkness… by killing every last creature that dared call itself a dragon!" He raised his hands to the sky and sent lightning skyrocketing into the air, filling the dark clouds with flashing blue.

"Witness the might of Azjerbach Jhavari Shenzon! GYAH HA HA HA!"

_**In a Class Above**_**  
>Episode Four: Key to Happiness<strong>

**Warfang Academy Infirmary  
>Wednesday, 5 September<br>0830 Hours**

Spyro lay in the infirmary bed in a state of confusion. Medicinal leaves were plastered across his chest and healing serum lay underneath, slowly mending the gashes Cynder had left on him. What had caused her to strike him? Had he done something to offend her? The questions clung to Spyro's mind like a horrible itch that just would not go away.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"C-come in," Spyro wheezed. He was clearly parched and in need of a drink. How long had it been anyway? Spyro watched the door open, expecting to see Cynder enter with some sort of an explanation but instead his brow furrowed in discomfort as Yevgeny Xraff entered the room taking long, calculated strides. Masters, Omar, and Zephyr flanked him. But what surprised him most was the curious looking gray dragon that entered last.

"Morning, bright eyes." Xraff chimed in mock-cheerfulness. "I hope you got a restful sleep because we've got a doozy of a case to take today."

"Why are you here, Xraff?" Spyro snarled. "Can't you see I'm wounded?" Spyro spat. "I'm not in the mood for your attitude."

"Believe me, if it were my decision I wouldn't even bother with this." Xraff scoffed. "Bossy pants over there is the one clawing at my backside about this." Spyro turned his attention to the gray dragon.

"Don't treat this as some kind of joke." O'Neill warned, baring his fangs and leering at Xraff. "If Mr. Rahim were to get word that you were refusing to aid him." O'Neill drew a talon across his throat. Spyro's eyes widened along with the other candidates.

"What the heck is going on here?" Omar growled. "And who's Mr. Rahim?"

"Mushraf Abdullah al-Rahim is the founder and head of a huge oil energy company based in the Fallujah Desert." O'Neill began. "His company provides power to hundreds of thousands of dragons living in the desert catacombs and he turns hundreds of millions of gems as a profit every calendar year. He has a single daughter, Felicity al-Rahim, who is nearly of age to choose a life mate. Mr. Rahim arranged for his daughter to marry an intelligent, cunning employee who would take the helm of Fallujah Oil, but it appears that Felicity doesn't quite see eye-to-eye with her father. Late last night she fled our colony with some unknown male dragon."

"Why does that concern us?" Omar questioned skeptically.

"Without the support of the al-Rahim family, the company will collapse and the entire Fallujah Desert province could be left without sufficient power." O'Neill responded darkly. "It is imperative that you locate Miss Felicity and return her to al-Rahim. If something were to happen to ruin her purity the arrangement would fall apart and so too would the company.

"So you're asking us to scour the entire continent to search for one dragoness?" Masters groaned. "That could take ages."

"I have reason to suspect she's hiding in Warfang." O'Neill scoffed. He then turned to Xraff. "Make sure you find her, or else al-Rahim will ensure your life is miserable." O'Neill turned and was out the door in an instant. Xraff looked at the young dragons and sighed.

"Apparently Mushraf al-Rahim is a former friend of Cyril's so there's no way for me to back out of this." Xraff bitterly remarked. "So, do we have any ideas as to how to locate the daughter?"

"Are you messing with us? That creep didn't even tell us what Felicity looks like. We're flying blind." Zephyr gawked.

"She's an earth dragoness." Xraff responded.

"Well that's a start. How many earth dragonesses could be running around Warfang with some random dude?" Omar growled sarcastically.

"Whining and bitching are not going to help us solve this case." Spyro chimed in. "What we need to do is go find students at the academy from Fallujah. There's a good chance they can have a better description of Felicity."

"Could you _please_ stop with the swearing?" Masters groaned. "It's making me uncomfortable."

"Oh grow up." Xraff spat. "You're in the adult world now, Masters, so you need to deal with adult language." He turned to Spyro. "An excellent suggestion as usual, Number One. Too bad you have to lie in bed while your friends go around and do the dirty work." He paused for a moment. "Well, off you all go." He shooed them away with flicks of his wrists and then limped out the door.

**Warfang Academy Corridors  
>Wednesday, 5 September<br>0915 Hours**

"You're looking tense, Jada. Something trouble you?" Zsnafrid inquired. He was obviously very agitated by his friend's extreme sense of caution. Zuwayy kept glancing around the room, expecting some unknown force to jump out and attack. He seemed to be quivering in his scales.

"After what you said to Gennady yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to splatter our brains from here to the heavens." Zuwayy gulped. "Why did you have to confront him like that?"

"It's just the way I do things, Jada." Zsnafrid responded with his trademark toothy grin. "You know I live for the thrill of flirting with danger. It seemed like confronting Gennady was one of those opportunities."

"I worry about you, my friend." Zuwayy cautioned. "One of these days you're going to find yourself in a situation where your attitude will be tested against your loyalty to others." Zuwayy looked away. "I fear you may choose your attitude and loose someone close in the process."

"You worry too much, Jada." Zsnafrid scoffed. "As long as I'm still standing, nobody's going to stand in the way of our friendship."

"Hey, Number Nineteen!" Zsnafrid quickly turned around and raised a curious eyebrow as Omar, Masters, and Zephyr dashed toward him.

"What are you guys doing? I thought I told you I didn't want to be bothered if I wasn't in guardian training." Zsnafrid groaned. "What could possibly be that important that you have to interfere with my friend and me?" He motioned to Zuwayy who mouthed a quick apology at his friend's bombastic tone.

"You're from the Fallujah Desert, right?" Masters wondered. Zsnafrid shook his head, still suspicious of the other fire dragons. "Are you familiar with Mushraf al-Rahim?"

"Of course I am." Zsnafrid scoffed. "He's only the richest dragon the world's ever seen! He supplies power to our home; he's got a monopoly on the place."

"He's a bit of a jackass, if you ask me." Zuwayy chimed in. "He's a controlling, manipulative, power hungry dragon who stops at nothing to get exactly what he wants."

"But why are you so curious about al-Rahim?" Zsnafrid asked.

"It's not him we're interested in… it's his daughter." Omar responded in a sultry tone.

"Felicity?" Zsnafrid's eyes widened. He turned to Zuwayy. "She was that sexy green dragoness that we always chased after, am I right?"

"_You_ chased after her and dragged me along." Zuwayy groaned. "And you know that she's way out of your league so what's the point in trying to continue to pursue her."

"Because I want to screw her, obviously. She's hotter than the desert sand in the middle of the summer months in a drought year!" Zsnafrid exclaimed with a laugh. "No dragoness is out of my league if I'm willing to invest myself in the task of wooing a woman." He flashed a toothy grin. Zuwayy rolled his eyes.

"Hey, could we stick to the topic at hand." Masters interjected. Her posture and tone of voice clearly betrayed her lack of comfort with the direction Zsnafrid had taken the conversation. "Felicity fled your desert province with some unknown male dragon and now Mushraf wants _us_ to find her and return her to him so she can be part of an arranged marriage."

"You're trying to track down Felicity?" Zuwayy gasped. "Good luck; when she wants to hide, she can stay hidden pretty easily."

"Maybe I should go with you guys." Zsnafrid suggested. "After all, I know what she looks like!"

"Wait, you were going to spend the day hanging out with me." Zuwayy whined. "Don't tell me you're going to ditch me!"

"I'm not ditching you. I'm just putting our bro date on hold for a little adventure." Zsnafrid affirmed. Zuwayy frowned.

"You're going to choose adventuring over your best friend?" He asked, attempting to instill a fair amount of guilt in the young fire dragon. Zsnafrid seemed unfazed by the comment.

"You don't see it?" He retorted with a question. "I've finally got an excuse to go check out Warfang and maybe if I'm lucky I can score that green dragoness too!" He explained eagerly. "You don't understand how long I've waited to go into Warfang, Jada. This is making me ecstatic just thinking about it."

"But... I thought you were happy just hanging out with me." Zuwayy whispered in a solemn tone.

"I could be, but I'd be _really_ happy checking out Warfang!" Zsnafrid pleaded. Zuwayy's eyes burned with a mixture of different emotions but none of them seemed to register with Zsnafrid, whose attention had already turned to the other three fire dragons. "So when do we leave?" He asked.

"Wait… wait… wait… we're actually going to go on a wild goose chase for this stupid girl?" Omar growled.

"Of course we are," Masters scoffed. "She's a minor out in a huge city with some random unknown male dragon. There are at least a hundred different things I could think of that could go wrong with her."

"It's an invasion of privacy!" Omar protested. "We can't interfere in her personal life."

"She _chose_ to break her father's rules." Masters stated. "Now she has to accept the consequences of breaking those rules."

"Absolutely not! Clearly there's some sort of reason that Felicity made a run for it." Omar fired back. "It's not our business to pry into her reasoning."

"Well unless she's somehow magically emancipated we are _required_ as guardians in training to find her and ensure that she is returned to her father." Masters growled. "It's not our fault she disobeyed her own father. I'm sure there's some psychologist or therapist she could speak to about her daddy issues but right now we've got a job to do." Masters turned and began to lead the fire dragons down the hall. Omar shook his head.

"This is wrong on so many levels!" He shouted as he dashed after them. Zuwayy watched them all go with anger burning within him.

"Zsnafrid… why would you do this?" He wondered out loud. He prepared to skulk toward his next class when a large blue paw appeared out of nowhere and clubbed him upside the head. Zuwayy collapsed on the ground and Gennady and Kaiser emerged from the shadows.

"What do we do with him?" Kaiser pondered.

"Grab him. I want to see that worm of a fire dragon squirm about and realize his mistake." Gennady cackled.

XxX

Cynder sighed and stared out at the bright blue sky. "I've made a mistake." She whispered to no one in particular. "I need to remedy this situation… but how?"

"Tell the truth." Cynder's eyes widened as a feminine voice answer her. She glanced over her shoulder as a crimson dragoness similar in build to her stood before her.

"What are you talking about?" Cynder growled. Her entire body tensed up. She had concluded that any dragon could potentially be working under Sebastian and Gennady and thus she constantly had to be on her guard. "Who are you?"

"I can tell when someone is keeping a dark secret hidden." The dragoness responded, dodging her second question. "What those guys did to you yesterday was disgraceful. However, you chose not to fight back… why?"

"My life has been filled with nothing but violence and hatred and a burning desire for revenge!" Cynder spat. The other dragoness seemed taken aback. Cynder turned to face her, her eyes glowing red with the power of rage unbeknownst to the dragoness. "You think my motives for fighting against Malefor were completely pure? That I was noble and wanted to save the world from his terror?" Cynder turned and looked up at the sky. "I wanted for revenge… revenge for everything that he did to me. He destroyed any possibility of a normal life."

"So you display anger and violence because of it? I know he corrupted you, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to live with the consequences forever." The dragoness pointed out.

"Why should you even care that I'm keeping what happened between me and Malefor a secret?" Cynder snarled. "Unless you're hiding something too."

"Me?"

"You still haven't told me your name. And you're trying to talk with the Terror of the Skies." Cynder pointed out. "You're being very shifty."

"You seemed distressed. I was only trying to help." The dragoness harshly responded.

"Really? I'm not quite convinced." Cynder scoffed. She eyed the dragoness suspiciously. "You must have your own problems to deal with. But you're avoiding them by trying to confront _me_ about _my_ problems."

"Well then I guess you're a hypocrite because now you're using the exact same tactic." The dragoness responded bitterly. "Sorry I interrupted your depression-fuelled sulk festival." She sneered. She turned around to leave.

"I still haven't gotten your name." Cynder exclaimed with a smirk.

"Call me… Thirteen."

**Warfang Academy – Staff Lounge  
>Wednesday, 5 September<br>1200 Hours**

The door swung open and Cyril jolted upright, clearly very startled. "What's going on?" He asked in a state of confusion. Terrador stood by the door with two younger dragons at his side.

"These two requested to see the guardians." Terrador huffed.

"Are they students?" Cyril inquired. Terrador shook his head, which only added to the mystery. Cyril examined the dragoness: young and emerald green with a silver pendant. His eyes widened. "By the ancestors… you're Felicity!" He gasped in shock. "What are you doing here? Don't you know your father is looking for you?"

"I could care less about my father." Felicity huffed. Terrador turned a concerned eye toward the two lovers.

"You're minors?" He gawked.

"I want emancipation." Felicity boldly proclaimed. Terrador and Cyril looked at each other in complete and total alarm.

**To be continued!**

**Please review or evil sprite pixies will visit your house and steal all your left socks.**


	8. Episode 4 Part 2

**Please excuse the differences from episode to episode as the location headers undergo appearance changes for your convenience!  
>~BestNotes<strong>

**Warfang**

"Ugh, we've looked absolutely everywhere! She's not here." Omar whined. The group of four fire dragons was wandering down one of Warfang's busy streets. Vendors lined the streets selling various ornate items or rare delicacies. Zsnafrid had taken the opportunity to spend some of his gems on purchasing a rather large melon and was digging into it rather contentedly.

"I say this place is pretty awesome." Zsnafrid exclaimed between large bites. "We could stay a little bit longer.

"It's pointless. If we haven't found Felicity by now then we're never going to be able to track her down." Omar espoused his objection for the second time. "I say we just quit and head back to the academy. My paws hurt and my wings are getting sore."

"Quit your bitching." Zephyr snorted. "If we return to the academy empty handed Xraff will tear into us." He paused and then stated, "I'd rather hurt my paws than have him chomping at our tails about this."

"Agreed." Masters voiced her own opinion. Omar's brow furrowed in annoyance and he gave a contempt filled snort.

"What I really want to know is where she possibly could be if she's not in this city." Omar growled. He looked up into the sky as if the answer was going to fall right out of it.

**Academy Staff Lounge; That Same Time**

"Emancipation?" Cyril gasped. "You're asking us to circumvent draconic law for your own personal gain?"

"More importantly, you're asking us to deliberately disobey your father's orders." Terrador stated in a fearful tone. "Your father is not a dragon that we take very lightly as guardians. He has too much power for his own good and we're not about to go against his wishes."

"Why not?" Felicity snarled. "I'm sick of his stupid rules and his constant back talk! He babies me. He treats me like I'm still a hatchling fresh out of the egg." She complained.

"Well I can see why." Cyril huffed. "Your maturity level is startlingly low for someone your age." Felicity glared at the ice guardian, who merely added, "You ran away from your own family because of some perverted dislike of your father. How exactly does that help to solve _any_ problem?"

"Well, it doesn't really _help_ anything. But I'd rather not deal with my father for the rest of my life. He's a pain in the ass." Felicity countered. "I don't care how hard it is to live as a minor, it's got to be better than the secluded, locked up lifestyle father puts me through."

"He's your father. He obviously cares about your well being." Terrador tried to reassure the dragoness but she remained obstinate.

"If he really cared about me then he would want me to be _happy_!" She sneered. "He only cares about his precious company, not my personal happiness and that's why he pisses me off so much."

"So running away from everything that you know is going to solve that problem? You can't mend a relationship by hiding from it." Terrador fired back. Felicity looked over at Massoud who gave her a warm smile.

"I don't care what any of you think. Massoud makes me cheerful and happy to be who I am. He doesn't treat me like I'm the daughter of some snobby rich businessman. He treats me like a normal earth dragoness." She proclaimed. Massoud boldly stepped forward and draped a comforting wing over her.

"Such defiance!" Cyril spat. "Highly unbecoming of a dragoness of your social stature. We must return you to your father immediately!" He fluttered his wings at Terrador who began to approach the two young dragons. Massoud jumped in front of Felicity and hissed loudly, baring his fangs and leering at the guardian with a high level of ferocity.

"You would dare to threaten a guardian?" Terrador bellowed.

"If it means protecting my _mate_, absolutely!" Massoud announced. Terrador's eyes widened and Cyril's jaw nearly hit the floor.

"You didn't…" He gasped.

"We did." Felicity responded with a triumphant grin. "It was fantastic, by the way. And now daddy's little 'perfect pure princess' is no more." She scoffed. "So I'll ask again, when do I get my emancipation?"

"Whoa, plot twist alert!" A new voice called out. Felicity suddenly screamed in pain as an unknown force restrained her in place. Massoud also found himself in a similar position; his limbs were stuck in their current position. Yevgeny Xraff limped into the room staring down the four dragons. "To think that daddy's girl bailed on him because she was banging a dude. Shocking, isn't it?" Xraff proclaimed rather sarcastically. "Personally I would have been slightly more surprised if she said her reason for leaving was that she was a lesbian and her father…"

"_Thank you_, Yevgeny." Cyril growled, an icy tone in his voice that told the pseudo-elf to shut up immediately. "Now then, we should return these two miscreants to Mushraf al-Rahim immediately." He ordered.

"I'm going to have to go ahead and say 'no' on that order, chief." Xraff shot the order down with a flick of his wrist. "Our case has taken a very interesting turn and I think my team should debate the merits of emancipating daddy's petite girl." Felicity snarled at Xraff who ignored the gesture.

"You're going to turn this into a game?" Terrador gawked. "This is a young dragoness's purity we're debating about!"

"It's not a game… it's an ethical debate." Xraff rebuffed. "And a very interesting one at that. But I suppose it will help to see where these guardian candidates stand with their morals and values." He turned to Cyril and with a smirk continued, "I would think those qualities would be very important in a guardian. We wouldn't want to have some random kid running around trying to keep peace and order while acting on a whim. I've got to figure out who's got a head on their shoulders."

"So this _is_ a game!" Felicity protested.

"Didn't you hear anything I said?" Xraff scoffed in response. "It's not a game." He pointed an accusatory finger at the two guardians. "As to the whole purity card, it's out the window at this point. She already went and fucked this whale of a water dragon."

"HEY!" Massoud snarled, attempting to lash out at Xraff but finding himself still bound in place.

"So the question now becomes do we send her home to suffer the wrath of her controlling father or does she get to run free." Xraff continued as if he hadn't noticed Massoud's actions. "I think this is a pretty important debate, don't you?"

"NO! Haven't I already made it clear I _refuse_ to go back?" Felicity sharply howled in rage.

"Your opinion doesn't matter any more." Xraff scoffed with a victorious smirk. "You've got infidelity working against you now so I highly suggest you shut your trap." Xraff turned around and the restraints holding Felicity and Massoud yanked them; they lurched forward and were dragged by magical energy out the door. "I'll have this resolved in a jiffy." He sang cheerily as he limped after the two dragons.

"Terrador, you can't let him do this! I will not get on Mushraf's bad side so soon after restoring peace to our world." Cyril espoused his protests rather hotly.

"The daughter deserves an opportunity to argue for her emancipation. It is the fair thing to do." Terrador argued back.

"She's a minor!" Cyril reminded the earth guardian in a rather irritated tone.

"Just trust that Xraff will come up with the proper answer." Terrador attempted to reassure. But deep inside he knew this could only bring about a disaster.

**Corridors; A Short Time Later**

Spyro wandered the halls in a state of confusion. It appeared that everyone was in class but he could not feel at ease until he resolved his dispute with Cynder. She was his one close friend in the entire academy and without her he was hopelessly alone and hopelessly confused. He looked around for any sign of black and sniffed the air for Cynder's familiar… musk. But none of his senses could register the black dragoness.

"Cynder… what am I doing wrong?" Spyro sighed into the air. "I want to make things work with you. I _need_ to make things right." Spyro was so preoccupied in looking toward the sky that he failed to see an earth dragoness walking up toward him. She appeared transfixed on a piece of parchment and bumped right into the purple's chest. Spyro gave a startled a jump at the sudden contact and looked forward. The dragoness looked up from her paper.

"H-Hi…" Spyro stammered. He suddenly found himself mesmerized by her thick lime green body and incredibly muscular yellow underbelly and clubbed tail.

"Hello," The lime green dragoness purred. She had a flirtatious grin on her face that suddenly brought incredible unease to Spyro. He felt a mix of strange new tingling sensations and could feel his pupils dilating. "You're Spyro, right?" The dragoness asked.

"Y-Yeah." Spyro responded in a vain attempt at appearing composed. The dragoness giggled and pressed a paw to her snout; Spyro felt his entire face burn red and thanked the ancestors for his darker colored scales. "W-Who are you?"

"I'm Terra." The dragoness chirped. She looked up at a large clock on the wall. "Well, I better get a move on. But it was nice meeting you." Terra started to amble by him, but ended up brushing her scaly hide against his. Spyro's eyes widened and he felt blood rushing around his body as if it was a racecar track. He felt a sudden dilation of the tissues around his hemipenes and Spyro swore in annoyance to himself.

"Number One," The feeling of embarrassment evaporated as Spyro watched Xraff march down the hallway leading two magically bound dragons. "You're just in time for the festivities."

"What did you do, Xraff?" Spyro whined.

"What your three competitors evidently couldn't do… track down little miss Felicity." Xraff motioned to the green dragoness at his side and Spyro stared at her curiously.

"She's my age?" He inquired, looking at Xraff as opposed to Felicity for conformation of his thoughts.

"Of course, it wouldn't be as fun if she wasn't a minor." Xraff scoffed. "Come on, we've got work to do. I'm assuming your dumbfounded classmates will find their way back to the tower _eventually_." Spyro shrugged and was at Xraff's side in an instant, happy to preoccupy himself with something to avoid thinking of his encounter with Terra.

As Xraff's small procession disappeared around a corner, shadows emanated from the wall and Cynder emerged into the light. She wore a frown on her face and her eyes were heavy with sorrow. "What's wrong with me?" She screamed as she rammed her horns into the wall in a rage.

XxX

"Wake up, bitch." Gennady sneered as he kicked the slumbering form of Jadallah Zuwayy. The young wind dragon slowly creaked his eyes open and groaned from the pain in his throbbing head. His eyes widened upon recognizing Gennady. "Ah… I see you remember me, good." Gennady balled his paw up into a fist and brought it crashing down on Zuwayy. Zuwayy gasped as all the air rushed out of him and he began wheezing in a desperate attempt to regain his breath.

"He looks pretty wimpy if you ask me." Sebastian mused. "I don't really see how you're going to use him to get to Zsnafrid."

"You… you won't get away with this, jerk." Zuwayy grunted through the pain. "My friend Zsnafrid… he will show up and do you justice… just wait."

"Oh I'm definitely shaking in my scales." Gennady laughed nefariously. "The only thing you get to look forward to is watching as I pound your friend into the pavement."

"What do you plan to do you bastard?" Zuwayy spat.

"I'm going to show you that your friend doesn't really care about you at all." Gennady stated with a dark chuckle. "I can see the deception in his eyes. Zsnafrid is a dragon built on a lies and deception."

"You're being a coward!" Zuwayy snapped. "Let me go and we'll settle this right now… dragon to dragon!" Gennady balled his paw up once more and slammed it into Zuwayy's underbelly. Again the air went rushing out of the wind dragon and he looked up at the large blue ice dragon with a hurt expression.

"The real coward is your friend Zsnafrid." Gennady scoffed. "Sooner or later he's going to realize you're missing and he'll know that we've got you. But he's not going to show up. He'll leave you to our mercy because the truth is that he's neither a good friend nor a brave, adventurous fellow."

"How would you know this?" Zuwayy rasped, still struggling to take in air.

"We all wear masks." Gennady sneered. "We put on personas to act as barriers against the world around us. Zsnafrid doesn't want anyone to know the _real_ fire dragon inside so he's acting the way he is as a defense mechanism. The truth is he's insecure and probably jealous of the other dragons around him. He thinks a tough guise can fool everyone." Gennady chuckled. "And judging by your expression I'd say he suckered you pretty nicely."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "You think we're all wearing masks?"

"Everyone has something to hide." Gennady stated with a malicious grin. "We draw lines to box ourselves in and make us forget about what our real problems are."

"But boss… what about you?" Kaiser interjected.

"I'm uncomfortable with the purple and the black so I embody that discomfort as anger and enmity toward dragons like you." He pointed at Zuwayy. "Idealistic snobs who think they can rely on their faiths and beliefs." He leaned in and whispered demonically to Zuwayy, "I'll take your stupid values and shove them down your throat. And as you choke on your disbelief I'll be right there… _laughing_."

"Zsnafrid will stop you! He'll show you that your theories are full of shit!" Zuwayy snarled, gnashing at the air with his fangs. Gennady looked toward the shut door of the room they were all in.

"Time will tell… time will tell."

**Academy Tower**

"Pop quiz," Dr. Xraff began as he addressed the guardian candidates. "When is a minor not a minor?"

"When it's a major?" Zephyr stated with a chuckle. Xraff whipped his cane around and conked the scarf wearing dragon over the head. "HEY!" Zephyr growled.

"The only one who should be making smart ass comments is yours truly." Xraff pointed at himself. "Now I'll say it again; what exactly defines a minor in dragon land?"

"Minors are required to live in the presence of their parents and are bound by any household rules established by the parents or guardians." Masters recited as if she was reading out of a law book. "A dragon or dragoness gains full emancipation upon reaching 21 hatch years. But until that time the parents have final say in any and all personal matters." She bit her lower lip and then added in an undertone, "Including arranged marriages."

"Unless a body in power grants the minor emancipation." Omar interjected. He turned to Xraff and hotly declared, "She's been living under an ironfisted father who gives her absolutely no freedoms or breathing room. We should be showing her sympathy and allowing her to do what makes her happy."

"That's exactly what I've been saying!" Felicity growled. "I _can't_ live with my dad anymore. He's driving me absolutely insane!"

"It's not your position to make this decision." Masters sharply scolded. "Your father is obviously very concerned with making sure you stay safe."

"But I'm not a hatchling!" Felicity protested. "He doesn't have to constantly be monitoring my every moves. I deserve at least a little bit of trust from him after following his rules for 17 damn years!"

"You're expecting trust after this dude fucked you halfway to Mercury?" Xraff chimed in with a cocky grin. "You'll be lucky if you get away with 'grounded for life'."

"Which is why you should emancipate me now!" Felicity demanded.

"Or _what_?" Xraff sneered. "You're going to go crying to daddy?" He grinned as he realized that he had hit a hot spot. Felicity's face lit up bright red like a stoplight and bared her fangs at the pseudo-elf. She looked around the room for something but found that she was still magically bound in place.

"We have to hand her back over to her father." Masters interrupted. Omar stared wide-eyed at her. "She deliberately broke the rules and now she has to pay the consequences."

"Tough… disciplinarian… I take it you like to follow the rules, Masters." Omar fired back sharply. "I never would have thought you'd be such a stickler for these regulations."

"A good guardian would have these regulations in mind so that he or she could keep order through the dragon world." Masters retorted hotly. "She's going back to her father. She should have understood she was making a mistake from the very beginning."

"I wasn't making a mistake. I was following my heart." Felicity shouted in anger. "Haven't you ever met someone that makes you feel special… that makes you just want to forget everything and be lost in the moment?" She looked at Masters with pleading eyes. A slight smirk crossed Xraff's lips as he awaited a reply from Masters but all she simply did was bite her lip and look away.

"Masters… what are you doing? Answer her." Omar sneered.

"Relationships aren't what's important. It's about family. Loyalty to your family is one of the most important values a dragon could have." Masters snorted. "Why you can't understand that is beyond me!" She turned away with a look of disgust on her face.

"I honestly can't believe you would think that!" Felicity cried. Her eyes started to sting as tears came to them. "Is love not important? Love and happiness?"

"Sometimes love and happiness need to take a backseat to fairness and justice." Masters huffed. "Like right now for instance."

"Absolutely not!" Omar interjected. "We need to get these two emancipation papers immediately and get them out of here and into a safe place so Mushraf al-Rahim doesn't know where to find them." Omar thought to himself for a moment. "We can enroll them in the academy! Surely al-Rahim won't interfere if they're getting education!"

"That can't work out. You will not be allowed to do this and you know that al-Rahim will send his coworkers to find his daughter." Masters sneered. "You can't make this work. It's a lose-lose situation." She stated pessimistically.

"Whatever happened to love conquering all obstacles." Zephyr stated with a snicker.

"Couldn't we offer al-Rahim an incentive in return for emancipation?" Spyro suggested.

"Oh great idea. Anybody got gems on them?" Xraff stated in utter sarcasm. He then looked down at the floor. "Wait… wait… the guy's got billions already. Anyone got a second daughter for him?" He looked around the room.

"Maybe we could find a dragoness willing to 'swap places' with Felicity. With some simple spells we could confuse al-Rahim into thinking it's his actual daughter." The purple dragon offered. All eyes in the room looked at him.

"You're committing fraud!" Masters gawked. "You can end up in jail for that!"

"If it means finally finding happiness the I'm willing to take the risk." Felicity stated with a sigh. Xraff stared at her with serious interest twinkling in his eyes. A small smile creased his lips.

"It's your funeral." He stated.

**Cafeteria; That Same Time**

"Zuwayy?" Zsnafrid called out through the empty room looking for some sign of the wind dragon. He glanced around the room for any definitive clues as to the whereabouts of his best friend. But the extensive room seemed to offer absolutely no signs of him. Zsnafrid had already checked Zuwayy's room but to his shock found that to be empty also. "Where could he have gone?" Zsnafrid asked himself.

He suddenly flinched as the sounds of paws on marble pounded in his head. He looked over his shoulder but to his utter surprise found nothing there. His snout scrunched up in confusion and he again looked around. A sudden breeze tickled his scales, causing him to jump. His body subconsciously began to curl into a fighting stance. His heart rate started to spike and sweat started to bead up on his brow.

"I know you're there!" Zsnafrid called out. "Show yourself you bloody coward!" Again the echo of footsteps pierced his hearing and he grit his teeth in frustration. His eyes started to dart around the room and narrow into fierce cat-like slits. "Zuwayy?" He called out once more.

"ZSNAFRID! RUN!" A voice loudly reverberated throughout the cafeteria walls. Zsnafrid was unable to pinpoint its origin, however. He looked up toward the ceiling but no one was hovering in the room.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Zsnafrid yelled, his voice starting to have a bit of a nervous edge to it. "Is this your way of getting back at me for earlier, Jada? Because if so then I'm really sorry. You can cut it out now. I know you're here somewhere." There was no response. Zsnafrid noticed his breathing was starting to speed up. _Is… is this fear?_ He wondered in shock.

"I was wondering when you would show up." Zsnafrid turned around and hollered in fear as a large dragon's silhouette appeared in the entryway.

"Jada, is that you?" Zsnafrid cried out, clutching his chest while breathing rapidly.

"Ha, ha… hardly." Gennady cackled as he stepped into the afternoon light.

"You," Zsnafrid hissed, leering at the large ice dragon.

"Oh, you remember me." Gennady exclaimed in mock cheerfulness. "I'm truly flattered."

"What have you done with my friend you _bastard_?" Zsnafrid spat. "Let him go or I'll rip your throat out of your damn neck!"

"HA, HA, HA!" Gennady threw his head back in a hearty laugh. "You really think it's that easy? Like I said… you need to be taught some respect. More than that… you need to be shown that your precious 'bravery' isn't worth shit." A grin came to Gennady's lips. "And your good friend is going to help us out." Gennady placed two talons in his mouth and whistled loudly.

Kaiser and Sebastian entered the room carrying a bound up and gagged Zuwayy. Zuwayy appeared unharmed other than some bruises on his chest. "Zuwayy!" Zsnafrid exclaimed. He turned to Gennady with rage on his fate. "I'll rip your heart out!" He lunged for the ice dragon.

"Ah, ah, ah," Gennady sidestepped and grabbed Zsnafrid around the neck. "Here's the fun part. You can either choose to fight me, or save your friend." Zsnafrid escaped from the hold and spun around, attempting to slam Gennady with his muscular tail. Gennady ducked the blow and motion to Hydrous, standing beside the two bullies holding Zuwayy. Hydrous took a deep breath and blasted Zuwayy with a gush of hydro water breath. Zuwayy screamed in pain, but the cry was muffled by the gag.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. Every attack you try to land on me will slowly inflict pain on your precious friend." Gennady exclaimed with a smirk. "And if you try to attack my companions… well, let's just say I hope you're not a bleeder." Gennady balled up a pw and cracked his knuckles. Zsnafrid stood there with indecision walled up in his head.

"I… I…" Zsnafrid stammered.

"What's in gonna be, your honor… or your friend?" Gennady whispered, snorting with laughter. Zsnafrid stood with wide eyes. "Come on, I thought you were all about flirting with danger. Take a shot at me… you know you want to." Gennady brought his massive tail up and sent it crashing down on the young dragon. Zsnafrid cried out in pain as his legs buckled out from under him.

Out of pure rage Zsnafrid got back to his feet and unleashed a torrent of flames toward Gennady. The ice dragon nimbly jumped out of the way and nodded to Hydrous, who struck Zuwayy in the chest. The wind dragon's eyes welled up with tears of pain and Zsnafrid immediately turned and fired off two fireballs at Sebastian and Kaiser. "Now, now… can't have that!" Gennady crooned as he swooped in and stopped the fireballs with shards of icicles. Zsnafrid lashed out with the full force of his body but Gennady lowered his horns and stopped him shy. He then turned around and smacked Zuwayy across the face with his fail. Blood welled up in the gash across his snout and he looked at Zsnafrid with pleading eyes.

"You monster!" He cried as he turned to flee from the cafeteria. Two smaller earth dragons jumped in and raised a wall of stone, blocking his only exit. Zsnafrid turned and screamed as Gennady flew at him full speed. He wrapped his large legs around Zsnafrid in a bear hug and flattened him against the newly made wall of stone. There was sickening crunch and Zsnafrid let out a whimper as he slumped down on the ground. Bruises coated his body and he weekly struggled to his feet.

"Pathetic," Gennady growled. "You talked so big yesterday. And yet you are incapable of putting up a decent fight. Which is also concerning. You choose to fight me instead of help your best friend?" Gennady looked at the bruised and bloodied Zuwayy. "You have neither honor nor bravery nor loyalty. You're a coward. A shell of the dragon you claim to be."

"I… am… not… a… _COWARD!_" Zsnafrid darted toward Gennady and brought his fist crashing upward. Gennady bent backward to dodge the punch but Zsnafrid swept his tail around in an attempt to drag Gennady's legs out from under him. Gennady grabbed the tail and froze it solid with a stream of ice vapor. It toppled to the floor uselessly but Zsnafrid came back with a rousing wave of flames…

…Until he heard a wail of pain. All the while, Hydrous had been racking Zuwayy with his claws as Zsnafrid attacked Gennady. His gag had fallen off in the process. "My friend, stop! Please… they're killing me!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Zsnafrid roared as he concentrated all his energy into his element. A huge wave of fire was unleashed. Gennady dived under a table for cover as the fire washed over him. He emerged completely unharmed, grinning confidently.

"It's over!" He growled as ice energy formed in his paws and he grabbed Zuwayy, sending the ice energy coursing through him. Zuwayy wailed in agony and his pain caused Zsnafrid to stop. Large cuts formed along the wind dragon's hide and began to bleed openly. Gennady let out a triumphant roar and tossed Zuwayy into Zsnafrid. The two friends rolled along the ground and came to a stop in heap in a corner of the room.

"I think we've done enough damage for one day." Gennady sneered. He snapped his claws and Kaiser, Hydrous, and Sebastian were at his side in an instant. "Let's get out of here." The dragons left the room. Zsnafrid let out a groan and slowly lifted his head up. He saw his friend lying before him.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry." He cried. "I never should have left you alone." Tears came to his eyes. "You were right. Being brave doesn't make me happy… having a good friend like you makes me happy. And now this has happened!"

"It's… okay." Zuwayy wheezed. "I should have been on my guard." His eyes rolled back in his head and he flopped on the ground unconscious.

"Zuwayy?"Zsnafrid stated nervously, shaking his fried vigorously with his front paws. "Zuwayy!" He lurched down with his horns and rolled his friend onto his back. "We have to get you to an infirmary!"

**Corridors**

The sun was quickly descending behind the mountaintops causing the sky to turn from a bright blue color to more of a yellowish orange color. Cynder sat perched upon the side balcony railing, staring down from the top floor of the academy. She swatted a pebble with her tail and watched as it went careening toward the ground. She heard a slight tapping noise as the pebble cracked into several pieces.

"_You know that you're worthless… disposable!" He snarled. "You are but a pawn. There are many who I can train to replace you."_

"_Master, no one is more faithful than I!" She protested. "I shall help you see your dream!"_

"_AROGANT BITCH!" He screamed and swiped her across the face with his claws. "My dream is that which you cannot even grasp! You will not live to see the world under my control! You are merely a tool to lead me to glory!" He sneered._

"_W-What are you saying?"_

"_Your only purpose is to die for me. Nothing more. I am raising you like a pig to be slaughtered once you have served out your usefulness." He gloated._

"_NO!"_

Cynder felt a tear trickle down her face and drop toward the ground many stories below. "Why is this happening? He's dead! I can't believe he could still be doing this." She suddenly found her muscles trembling.

"Cynder!" She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. It was Spyro. He seemed incredibly worried. "What's going on? You're… why did you hurt me yesterday?"

"I… don't know." Cynder lied. She took a deep breath. "I guess I was just incredibly stressed and I took it out in a way… like my past." She gulped.

"Cynder, I told you I don't care about the past. I don't care if you're angry at me or you _do_ want to hurt me." Spyro stated. "I just want my friend back." He walked over and jumped onto the railing along with her. "You're the strongest dragoness I've ever known. If anyone… _anyone_ is capable of fighting through this, it would be you."

"Sebastian attacked me." She said with a sniffle. "I didn't want to fight back. All I've ever done is fight and I'm tired of it." She looked out into the abyss. "But I don't want run away either."

"Then ignore him." Spyro offered. "If you ignore him, he's bound to stop bothering you."

"I suppose that's true." Cynder sighed. And a slight smile came to her lips. "Thanks for helping me Spyro." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Come on, let's grab dinner."

"Sounds good."

**Staff Lounge; The Next Day**

"The dragoness had been deluded into believing she is the _real_ Felicity." Xraff explained. "Mushraf al-Rahim had confusion potion mixed into his cocktails yesterday evening." He then paused and added, "He's a decent drinker. I'd give him a six out of ten."

"You went drinking with him?" Masters gawked.

"No, I went drinking _next_ to him." Xraff joked with a snigger. "The point is that we sent the earth dragoness home and Felicity has signed emancipation papers and is living in the city with that weird guy."

"Massoud." Omar interjected.

"A brilliant idea." Terrador remarked. "I never would have thought of something so…"

"Vile and underhanded!" Cyril spat. "You've ruined the life of a student and confused a father! A very powerful one at that. If al-Rahim figures out we tricked him we shall face the full force of his fury!"

"I wouldn't worry about that." Xraff scoffed. "It's very powerful magic that's going to make him very hazy. If he really was saying he was getting to old for the family business then this will be a good thing for him." Masters grit her teeth in annoyance. "And it wasn't my idea, either." Xraff motioned toward Spyro. The purple dragon fidgeted with his paws nervously.

"Spyro? Young dragon you realize the risk you have just taken." Cyril gawked. "You may have just made a very powerful draconic enemy."

"A guardian is willing to take risks if it means making our subjects happy." Spyro explained. "Those two dragons are going to have a very good life and al-Rahim's company will survive. I think it's a win-win situation." He added triumphantly.

A slight smile tugged at Xraff's lips. "So he thinks." He muttered. "This should be fun to watch."

**Infirmary**

Zsnafrid paced anxiously around waiting for the healer to report to him on his friend. It seemed as though a large amount of time had passed and it was evidently clear that nobody was going to tell him anything he picked himself up and slowly slinked out of the infirmary. He walked out into the gardens and took a deep breath of fresh air. "Today is the beginning of a new start for me." Zsnafrid started to step forward when a bolt of lightning struck the area centimeters in front of him.

"What the hell…?" He barked as he jumped back. "Who was that?" He got his answer in the form of a tall, bald figure standing in front of him.

"A dragon; the symbol of all that is wrong in this world." The figure called out.

"What's your problem?" Zsnafrid growled.

"My problem is that you're standing in front of me alive." The figure spat. "All you dragons disgust me. As it happens, you seem to fit the description of a dragon I happen to be on the hunt for." He stepped forward and stroked at his beard. "Fire dragon…" He muttered.

"Who shoved a poker up your ass? I didn't do anything to you!" Zsnafrid sneered. "Now you better get out of here before I show you why I'm not to be crossed."

"Arrogant… cocky." The figure murmured to himself. Zsnafrid cocked his head in confusion. His eyes widened as the figure's hand suddenly glowed with electricity. "You ruining Isaiah's plan. You robbed me of my pawn and for that I cannot allow you to take another breath."

"Are you high or something? Because I'm more than willing to bring you back down to earth, jackass!" Zsnafrid opened his maw and unleashed a stream of flames.

"You dare attack me? You dragons are all the same! Brutish barbarians who do not deserve the powers you have been granted." He brought his hands together and created a spherical barrier of lightning around him, causing the fire to divert in all directions. "Now face my _power_!" He threw his hands above his head and concentrated masses of electricity began to form around him.

"What the fuck?" Zsnafrid shouted in a panic as he dove through the infirmary door for cover. The figure sent the lightning orbs barreling toward the door. "Shit, I can't let him destroy the infirmary!" Zsnafrid leaped out of his hiding spot and used his fire breath to stop the lightning attack. Suddenly a hand reached out and gripped him around the throat.

"Game over," The figure hissed. Zsnafrid tried to holler or call for help but found his throat constricted. "I win." The lightning collected in his palm and formed into a dagger. "Have a nice time in hell." Zsnafrid's eyes widened and he started to thrash about but there was nothing to do. The dagger plunged into his throat and was dragged down the length of his neck. Blood spilled out of the wound, followed by chunks of the larynx and other glands in his neck. Zsnafrid gave a dying whimper and collapsed onto the ground.

Azjerbach Jhavari Shenzon dropped Zsnafrid's corpse to the ground with a look of disgust. "If I have slain but one dragon then I have done the world one piece of service." He looked up toward the academy. "But if I am to rid this world of dragons once and for all I will need a more powerful instrument." He spun around, jacket flapping against his form, and casually strolled away from the crime scene.

It wasn't until several hours later that one of the healers discovered Zsnafrid's dead body strewn across the ground. The healer's eyes widened and he immediately contacted the academy staff declaring an emergency. The guardians, along with several teachers were down in an instant. "What going on?" Terrador hotly inquired. The healer pointed to Zsnafrid with a nervous, trembling talon.

"By the ancestors!" Gaius gasped. "Who would do such a ghastly thing? They deserve horrible punishment for taking the life of another dragon."

"It's a blade inflicted wound." Volteer surmised. "Every student with tail blades or wing barbs could be a suspect… especially if there are no witnesses to the crime." He looked down at the ground in dismay.

"We need to launch an investigation." Watson proclaimed. "Whoever this killer is could strike again and we cannot risk the safety of our young ones."

"It wasn't a dragon." Cyril suddenly spoke up. "The wound is much too large to have been inflicted by any dragon's tail blade which means that it had to have been some sort of knife or dagger in very close combat." He rubbed his temple in annoyance. "We will require some extra security but to launch an investigation is a waste of manpower. Any species capable of holding a knife could be guilty."

Terrador nodded his agreement. "We should adjourn to the staff lounge to discuss things in more detail."

**Please review if you have any feedback or comments!**

**Episode Four Written by**

BestNotes

**Edited by**

Nightmare King

**Character Contributions**

Nightmare King (Zuwayy)

Blaze406 (Thirteen)

Angela Dawes (Omar)

Jay Anderson (Zephyr)

Jon Westman (Sebastian)

Vanessa Stein (Kaiser)

Mark Bayer (Hydrous)

and Vlad Johnson (Gennady)

**Guest Contributions**

Geoff Grant (al-Rahim)

**Episode Created by BestNotes & Nightmare King**


	9. Episode 5

_**"False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade."**_**~Christian Nestell Bovee**

**Warfang Academy**

The black dragoness sat watching the sun slowly creep over the horizon. She clutched a quill in her left paw and stared at a blank piece of parchment. She let out a long sigh. _What am I doing?_ She thought to herself. _Why am I so afraid of this that I can't talk with him about it in person? Yes, it was traumatic, but I can't continue to let it haunt me_.

She slowly moved her paw across the parchment, scribbling out her thoughts. Several moments later she looked at the parchment in disgust and crumpled it up and tossed it into a pile of several crumpled up pieces of paper. "God damn it!" She roared, knocking aside all of her stuff on her desk in a frenzy. "Why can't I just tell him? Why?" Tears came to her eyes and trickled down her face. She looked at the ground and snorted in contempt. _Because I don't want to be any more of a social pariah than I already am_. She responded in her mind.

She stood up and looked out the door of her room and noticed a slender figure standing in her doorway. "You again…" Cynder whispered. "What do you want?" She growled.

"You seem to be under quite a bit of emotional distress." The crimson dragoness remarked as she slowly crept into Cynder's room.

"It's none of your business." Cynder proclaimed hotly.

"I'm not saying it's my business." Thirteen responded. "But you _arouse_ my curiosity." Cynder scrunched her face in confusion at the crimson dragoness's comments. "You're quite possibly the single most hated figure at the school right now." Cynder narrowed her eyes at Thirteen in anger. "And yet you're still here. Obviously something's keeping you rooted here. And I want to figure out what that is."

"Oh, well isn't that just sweet." Cynder crooned sarcastically. "But I don't need anyone prying into my personal business."

"It's a guy… isn't it? But which one…" Thirteen thought aloud to herself.

"It's _not_ a guy." Cynder growled. "I'm here to show everyone that I've changed for the better. There's just one small issue from the past getting in the way." Thirteen cocked her head curiously. "You think I'm going to tell you?" Cynder stated in mock surprise. "You're a gossip… just like most of the annoying bitches in this school."

"You think I'm a gossip?" Thirteen gasped. "Oh you could _not_ be more wrong. I hate most of these other girls just as much as you do. That's why I don't hang out around any of them."

"And yet you've taken an interest in me." Cynder stated in a very serious tone.

"Because you're different." Thirteen responded with a sly grin. "And I think different is a good thing." Cynder continued to gaze suspiciously at the crimson dragoness. "I think that together we can turn this school on its head." Thirteen offered. Cynder suddenly perked up with curiosity. "The problem here is that all these guys are horny idiots who think we're here to please their twisted sexual fantasies. And for the most part a lot of the girls are more than happy to fill that role. I'm sick of the girls acting like sluts and the guys acting like they can get away with anything."

"So what's your point?" Cynder growled impatiently.

"We should be friends." Thirteen stated with a smile. Cynder looked at the crimson dragoness in surprise but Thirteen showed absolutely no signs that she was joking. "So what do you say?"

"Yeah… I guess it's a good idea." Cynder guffawed with a nonchalant wave of her paw. "So what; am I going to see you at lunch or something?"

"Probably… but I have Xraff's class today. So I might not make it." Thirteen replied. Cynder seemed taken aback by the statement. "Yeah… I'm in fire guardian training. It's a _ton_ of fun." The last sentence came out rather sarcastically and Cynder couldn't help but crack a smile. "But maybe I'll see you around." Thirteen flicked her paw and was up and out of the room in an instant. Cynder watched her go with a curious grin.

**Academy Tower**

"What do you want?" Xraff growled. A green dragoness stood on the stairs of the tower classroom with a determined look on her face. "Because I'm not into sexual relations with four-legged reptiles."

"I'm going to ignore that comment." The dragoness sneered. "And I'm going to ask for your help with something." She paused. "You're a teacher, right? That means you help students. Well, here's a student asking you for help." The dragoness blabbered.

"I highly doubt you need help with your school work." Xraff sneered. "So who are you looking to blackmail or screw over?" The dragoness stared at Xraff with keen interest. "Ugh… you're still here. What's it going to take to get you out of my sight?"

"I happen to have looked at your paycheck, Dr. Xraff, and its incredibly… _underwhelming_ for a man of your talents." She responded. Xraff looked up from twirling around his cane and frowned at the dragoness. "My dad works for Xerd Industries and as a result my family is _very_ well off. I'm sure I could easily subsidize you if you're willing to help."

"You're going to _bribe_ me?" Xraff gasped. "Well, this is certainly a change of pace." He snickered. He flipped his cane in the air and caught it upside down. "How much are we talking here?"

"Two thousand gems," The dragoness responded. Xraff nearly choked on the swig of alcohol he was drinking. The dragoness smiled, clearly having struck a cord with the pseudo-elf. "That's going to buy you at least three years worth of booze." She cooed softly. Xraff's eye twitched ever so suddenly.

"What exactly are we talking about here?" Xraff inquired, he curiosity sparked by the dragoness. She smiled.

"You know that black dragoness, Cynder?"

"The Terror of the Skies; never heard of her." Xraff scoffed sarcastically. The dragoness giggled at his sarcasm causing Xraff to sit up with a glare. "Nobody laughs at my put downs; what are you playing?"

"I've got my eye on a certain dragon going to the school… the purple one." The dragoness whispered. Xraff suddenly stood up.

"No deal."

"WHAT?" The dragoness's jaw literally hit the floor. "I haven't even told you anything. How could you totally jerk me around like that and lead me on only to say 'no'? That's such a dick move!"

"Listen, I may be a 'dick' or an 'asshole' or a complete 'jerk' but I don't mess with any of my students and their personal lives." Xraff stated in a very serious tone of voice. "You think that you're honestly going to interfere with fire guardian training? You really believe I'd let you do that? I'm not going to help you!"

"Five thousand gems." The dragoness huffed.

"You were saying." Xraff stated in a mock-cheerful tone as he sat back down. He calmly crossed his legs and closed his eyes as if he appeared deep in thought.

"I need Cynder away from Spyro so I can finally get my shot with him." The dragoness explained. "She's an expert in poisons… you know. So I was thinking that you could use her for your next case. Let's just say I picked out a very _venomous_ case for you, Dr. Xraff."

"That was a _horrible_ use of world play." Xraff sneered.

"Shove it up your ass, grandpa." The dragoness hissed.

"Oh, attitude, I like that in a woman." Xraff purred in a surprisingly seductive tone. "Anyhow, continue." The dragoness eyed Xraff suspiciously and then produced a file from her rucksack. She placed it on Xraff's desk.

"Cheetah is complaining of paralysis and shortness of breath. It might seem like nothing but suddenly his mate comes down with exactly the same symptoms. Now there are ten cheetahs with the same issues." The dragoness elaborated. "If the cheetah had adsorbed a toxin into his bloodstream it could easily travel around and affect the entire village if you don't figure out what it is." The dragoness grinned mischievously. "Cynder knows her poisons. She can help you figure out exactly what the poison is."

"Oh, that's really clever." Xraff scoffed. "You're assuming, of course, that I personally have no experience with poisons. In all of my years of practicing medicine I've never… _never_ worked with any sort of toxins." He ranted sarcastically. The dragoness frowned. Xraff's lips curved upward in a smirk. "Actually I really _don't_ have much experience with poisons so she could be of some serious use if we're trying to save a bunch of felines."

The dragoness snapped her talons. "Aqua, bring in the money!" She cried. A turquoise dragoness wearing a diamond-shaped pendant slowly clawed her way into the room dragging an incredibly large burlap sack using her maw. The green dragoness watched as her friend slowly got the bag of gems to Xraff's desk.

"Sweet Draco, these gems are heavy." Aqua panted. "How many did you say are in here, Terra?"

"Doesn't matter," Terra mused. "So, do we have a deal?" She directed the question at Xraff.

"Of course."

_**In a Class Above**_**  
>EPISODE FIVE: A Terrafying Situation<strong>

Spyro walked down the corridor toward the cafeteria humming contently to himself. He was in goods spirits seeing how he did not have to deal with the crazed Dr. Xraff and his fire guardian training. "So what should I do with my free time?" He pondered aloud. A black figure suddenly entered his field of vision. Spyro smiled warmly. "Hey, Cyn!" He called out. "You feeling better?"

"Yeah, I'm doing loads better." Cynder chirped. She walked up to him. "I really appreciate your help yesterday. You don't know how much it means to me."

"Oh, there you are." Spyro looked around and his heart sank as Yevgeny Xraff limped toward him. "Oh, not you. Cut it out with sad puppy dog eyes. If I wanted to see a soap opera I'd move in with my mother-in-law." Xraff snorted. Spyro cocked his head in confusion. "I'm looking for your girlfriend."

"Cynder? She's not my…" Spyro and Cynder blushed simultaneously. Xraff cracked a slight smile. "Why do you need Cynder?"

"Oh, suddenly getting possessive, are we?" Xraff gasped with mock surprise. "Anyhow, we have a very special case and happen to need Cynder's expertise on poisons. I don't really know much about toxins and we have a potential venomous outbreak amongst a cheetah tribe."

"You're a doctor and you don't know shit about poisons?" Cynder mused. "That's so… ironic." She spat. "Why should I help you?"

"You'll get those community service hours you need for starting that fight." Xraff responded, confident that he had hit the right cord. Cynder's face sank in defeat and she slinked toward the pseudo-elf. "We'll be seeing you around, Number One." Xraff turned and limped away with Cynder following with a look that told Spyro "help me." Spyro put on an apologetic look but turned to enter the cafeteria.

He was reaching to grab a tray when a turquoise paw crossed his path. Spyro jerked his leg back and looked up into a pair of turquoise eyes. The dragoness blushed slightly and gave a slight smile. "H-Hi… I'm sorry, am I in your way?" Spyro stammered. The turquoise dragoness giggled and shook her head.

"No, not at all. You're just fine." She whispered. "I'm Aqua, by the way. You're Spyro right?" Spyro nodded dumbly. He found his eyes wandering down to her curvy underbelly causing him to crack a goofy grin. "Hello; anyone home?" Aqua said. Inside her mind, the turquoise dragoness was whooping in victory. The purple dragon was clearly ogling her; she had a leg up on Terra already. Spyro suddenly shook his head.

"I-I'm really sorry. I don't know what came over me." Spyro apologized profusely. Aqua put a paw to her mouth and giggled.

"No, it's okay, silly. I actually _like_ that." Aqua giggled. "Say, do you want to have breakfast with me?" She asked. She opened her eyes wide and gave the purple dragon a pleading look. Spyro gulped and looked around, hoping for some sort of escape. Seeing none, he slowly nodded his head. Aqua squealed with delight and wrapped her tail around Spyro's neck. The purple dragon's eyes widened and his muscles suddenly went slack from the contact.

Over in the corner of the cafeteria a bright yellow dragoness watched Aqua and Spyro walking side-by-side toward and empty table and her lip curled in disgust. "Why can't those two sluts see the road to ruin that they're on?" She watched the turquoise dragoness and purple dragon sit down facing one another at the empty table. "Grrr… those stupid little skanks."

"So Spyro, are you _enjoying_ the academy so far?" Aqua cooed softly, batting her eyelashes for the purple dragon. Spyro rubbed his neck and gulped.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty fun." Spyro responded. "Once you get past the annoying Dr. Xraff and his fire guardian training."

"Oh, you're training for the fire guardian spot?" Aqua inquired with keen interest. "That's awesome." She scooted closer to the purple dragon. "You're _so_ talented, Spyro. I don't know why we don't hang out more often."

"I barely even know you." Spyro guffawed. "It just wouldn't seem right." He paused suddenly, and then muttered under his breath, "I think."

"Your uncertainty is kinda cute." Aqua sniggered as she brushed her hide against his. The purple dragon suddenly sat up straighter and his face flushed with red. "Surely you have some sort of hobby or something, don't you?"

"N-Not really." Spyro stammered. "I've been really busy since this whole academy thing has started and I haven't really found any free time. Today's my first day off in what seems like forever."

"Well you should take the opportunity to relax." Aqua whispered, her lips curved upward in a sincere smile. "I'm more than willing to help you out with that, if you catch my drift." She winked flirtatiously at him and Spyro stiffened once again. She looked at him curiously, still grinning. "Something the matter?"

"N-No; not at all." Spyro responded, stumbling over his words as he fumbled around for an answer. "It's just you…" He gulped. "You're really pretty, that's all. And I keeping staring and… that's not very nice of me." Aqua had to stifle laughter at the purple dragon's innocence.

"That's okay, Spyro. I like it and I'll take that as a complement!" She chirped confidently. The water dragoness finished off the last of her breakfast and turned to Spyro. "Well, it was really nice talking to you. Maybe we can chill again sometime _real_ soon?"

"Y-Yeah, whatever works for you." Spyro mumbled. Aqua squealed in delight and sauntered off toward the nearest corridor, swaying her hips in a hypnotic fashion from side to side. Spyro's eyes widened and he felt his body temperature spiking as he watched the dragoness walk off into the distance. He sat staring off dumbly into space until he was snapped to attention by a sudden tap on the shoulder. He glanced over his side and found himself staring face to face with the earth dragoness he had bumped into in the hallway.

"It's good to see you again, Spyro." Terra greeted with a smile. Spyro once again felt his temperature spiking and his heart thumping wildly in his chest. "I have first period off, you know. Want to go for a little stroll?" She was met with no response as Spyro stared blankly at her underbelly. The earth dragoness giggled and pressed a paw to her lips as she tried to prevent from blushing.

"Alright, that's enough!" A voice sharply rang out from behind Terra. Spyro and Terra looked around and Terra's brow immediately furrowed in anger as her friend Thundra stomped toward her with a look of sheer determination on her face.

"What's your problem?" Terra sneered. "I was just trying to spend some time with Spyro and suddenly you lose it? That's not very like you, Thundra." She pointed out. Thundra's eyes flashed with rage.

"I am not going to continue to sit and watch you and Aqua _harass_ the purple dragon for your amusement!" Thundra spat. "It's disgusting and degrading and just downright sinister of you to think that you can get inside of someone's head and mess with them like this."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sweetie." Terra responded in an incredibly sweet tone of voice. "Spyro really likes me. Don't you, Spyro?" She turned to the purple dragon who immediately froze like a deer in the headlights.

"Uh…" He tried to grasp at his vocabulary for some form of an answer but nothing escaped his lips.

"Besides," Terra continued, "you're not the boss of me. You have no right to tell me who I can or whom I can't be attracted to. I think Spyro's sexy and I'm free to pursue a relationship with him if I choose." She harrumphed.

"R-Relationship?" Spyro gasped as if he had been struck across the face. "I never said anything about…" Terra gave the purple dragon a death glare and he immediately stopped mid-sentence.

"It's wrong!" Thundra hissed acidly. "You're acting on jealousy and hatred toward Cynder and you're polluting the mind of an innocent dragon." She then added with extreme emphasis, "And a fire guardian candidate at that. Have you no shame?"

"You're the one acting like a bitch and butting in where your snout doesn't belong." Terra fired back. "If you really were my friend you'd butt out and let me do what I please. I'm old enough to not need babying from my so-called best friend."

"I'm trying to _tell_ you that what you're doing is stupid and is only going to cause trouble for a _huge_ number of us in the long run!" Thundra huffed, puffing her chest out and fluttering her wings in an act of dominance.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were a damn oracle dragon all of a sudden!" Terra screamed back, her temper reaching its bursting point. "You want to know what I think? I think _you're_ the jealous one. You don't stand a chance with any guy so you just _hate_ to see Aqua and I hitting it off with _the_ dragon that every dragoness wants to be with."

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Thundra gasped, her eyes widening in rage. "For the record, I can just as easily get any stupid male under my wing just as easily as you and Aqua! But unlike you, I'm _sensible_! I'm willing to wait until I'm _sure_ I've found the right dragon. I'm not stupid enough to go around acting on some whim or trying to satisfy some retarded sexual fantasy." She spat. "Fantasy, of course, meaning _NOT FUCKING REAL!_" She yelled.

"All this coming from the dragoness who has never had a single boyfriend in her sixteen hatch years." Terra teased. Thundra's face turned bright red with rage and wisps of electricity crackled around her snout.

"THAT TEARS IT!" She shrieked. "I've had enough of your snarky comments; I've had enough of your childish games; in fact, I've had enough of _you_!" She glared daggers at the earth dragoness who leered back with a vicious intent. "I'm challenging you to a duel… in the arena… this afternoon!"

"You can't be serious." Terra scoffed. "On what grounds could you possibly lay this duel?" By now, the argument had attracted several dragons' attentions; specifically, a familiar blue ice dragon and his cohorts who took places behind Terra.

"If I win, you and Aqua give up your stupid little bet for good." Thundra snorted.

"And if… sorry, _when_ I win?" Terra taunted.

"_If_ you win, then I'll leave you and Aqua alone for good." Thundra stated with a slight "hmph."

"Deal," Terra stated with a malicious grin.

"Perfect," Thundra responded, glaring at the earth dragoness the entire time.

"Good; I look forward to kicking your ass in front of the entire school." Terra sneered. She turned on a dime and marched confidently out of the cafeteria, leaving the lighting dragoness standing there fuming. Spyro sat wide eyed; his eyes darted back and forth between Thundra and the empty spot where Terra had just stood moments ago.

"What just happened?" He groaned.

**Infirmary**

The young dragons stood over the cheetahs with stunned expressions on their faces. They lay motionless on their cots, their chests struggling to rise and fall as their lips struggled to take in breaths of air. They all wore masks that were hooked up to a rather large tank filled to the brim with free-flowing oxygen. "How did they get to be like this?" Johan gasped.

"Well now that would be the big question, wouldn't it?" Xraff responded, staring intently at the ten cheetahs that all seemed remarkably similar in their sick states. He scratched his chin in deep thought but otherwise his body language gave away absolutely nothing. Cynder stalked up to one of the cheetahs, which could manage nothing but a soft groan of pain. She grasped its thin, twig-like arm in her paws and examined it. "See anything?"

"I… I can't feel a pulse." Cynder stammered. "This cheetah… it's too weak." Her brow furrowed in frustration. "There are a handful of poisons that affect an individual like this. But none of them can be spread to other persons like a contagion." Cynder looked at Xraff with a very serious face. "That can only mean that someone is interfering and meddling with substances that are for too dangerous to control."

"Why would you assume that?" Ike skeptically countered. "We've been in a state of peace for over a year now. Malefor's dead; there's no reason for someone to be… _experimenting_ on cheetahs with toxins. There's no reason to cause such trouble."

"Unless someone out there is trying to catch our attention." Thirteen suggested bitterly.

"Nonsense!" Ike scoffed. "You're saying we're walking into a trap? We have no enemies!" He smirked. "You're being paranoid, Thirteen." Thirteen narrowed her eyes in a contentious glare. Ike merely rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Cynder. "So what poison do you think it is?"

"Although many poisons can cause creatures' bodies to shut down, there's only one poison that I can think of that would cause a comatose state so rapidly." The black dragoness explained. "Cytroethnisine enters the body through direct contact. But at the time that I was being taught about it, Cytroethnisine was no longer in existence."

"Impossible!" Ike gasped.

"…" Xraff's eyes closed as he suddenly went deep into thought.

"Malefor told me that Cytro, as it's commonly referred to, is produced by a unique flower that went extinct in the early days of his battles against dragon society." Cynder continued. "Malefor had wanted to use Cytro as a noxious biological weapon during the war but never figured out how he could recreate the flower."

"But that would mean someone possesses the ability to create biological life." Johan noted. "A mind that brilliant with access to that sort of technology… is it possible?"

"I-I'm not sure…" Cynder's voice quivered.

000

"…Yes, it truly is powerful." Azjerbach Shenzon said aloud to no one in particular. "But does it satisfy the power I so richly seek? Does it have the power to eradicate the dragons? Can it stop the Dragon of Prophecy?" He looked down over the valley to the desolate cheetah village. Bodies lay strewn across the ground; none moving; all still. "The cheetahs… they possess strong wills and yet… they have no the strength to match the dragons. They lack the magic." Shenzon looked up to the starry sky. "Already, I have felled one dragon. And now I see that the task before me seems insurmountable."

"But I am here with a purpose." Shenzon continued. "I have _seen_ the way out of hopelessness. For peace to truly be brought to this world… the dragons must perish. But what power is there in this world that will eliminate them? The Destroyer could not fell the Dragon of Prophecy, he who pulled a crumbling world back together. So for one long year I have searched for that power… that power which will prove the downfall of _all_ dragons. But still I experiment. Cytroethnisine is but another test… and I see that it is still is not what I need to destroy all dragons."

"WHAT THEN?" The man shouted into the twilight. "Where is this power and how can I control it?" Shenzon clenched his fist, which began to glow with electrical energy. "Show me the answers!" He thrust his arm upward and watched as the lightning orb spiraled into the air and erupted in a brilliant flash of light. "Yes… Yes… I can see it! YESSSSS! SHOW IT TO ME! I WILL KNOW OF EVERYTHING!"

The light subsided.

'_The… Shards… of… Ruin…'_

Shenzon collapsed on all fours. "Finally… I have the answer. But I must acquire more knowledge about these Shards of Ruin." He got on one knee. "The hunt… the kill… with every dragon slain, another piece of the puzzle will reveal itself. I must fight dragons to acquire the key to the Shards of Ruin." Shenzon stated. "I must return to that… that _academy_. This is where the dragons are _most_ vulnerable. This is where knowledge is present."

"I will find the answers there… Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah hah hah hah!"

**Warfang Academy**

Spyro felt the sensation ripple through his body causing him to holler in pain. Thankfully there were no other dragons around to hear his cry of anguish. The purple dragon got to his feet, clutching at his chest and wincing in pain. "Wh… what was that?" He pondered aloud. "That feeling…? It was just like when I sensed Malefor and his dark magic at work." His eyes suddenly widened and he stared out the window with a look of shock. "But that's impossible. Malefor's dead."

"The darkness… could it really be back?"

000

Terra stood with a confident smirk by her bed of cushions, fawning over a rather large, heavily locked down chest. Gennady and his cohorts along with Aqua stood watching the earth dragoness intently. "Daddy said not to use this. If Xerd gets wind that _I_ have one of the prototypes, daddy could get fired. But I say, desperate times call for desperate measures."

Gennady looked at Terra with intense curiosity. "What are you babbling about?" He growled. "Are you saying you can tip this little fight with Thundra in your favor?"

"Of course." Terra whispered with a sinister grin.

"You sound so confident." Sebastian scoffed. "Thundra looked pretty pissed. And there's never a more driving force in battle than anger, if you ask me. You sure you stand a chance against her?"

"Am I sure?" Terra threw her head back in laugh. "Do Frogweeds smell like rancid vomit?" Sebastian looked like he had been slapped in the face and opened his mouth to rebuke, but found no words escaped his lips. Terra put a paw to her snout to stifle the laughter. "I've never been more sure of anything. I've seen what daddy and Xerd do, and I can say that what's in here… it's the _real_ deal."

"But Thundra's a tough cookie." Aqua pointed out. "You've had skirmishes with her before and you always get your ass kicked." She noted bitterly.

"That's in the past!" Terra huffed defiantly. "I'm much more of a dragoness now than I was all those years ago back home. I know how to fight and I've got daddy's and Xerd's special present." She said with a devious smile. "If that bitch Thundra knew what was good for her she'd surrender now." Gennady licked his lips in anticipation. The bulky blue ice dragon was immediately up and standing directly across from the earth dragoness.

"Show me!" Gennady commanded. "I want to see your so-called secret weapon." He barked. "Prove to me that you have this 'prototype,' because all I'm hearing is a lot of talk and nothing to back it up." Terra grinned devilishly once again.

"If you insist!" She cackled. She quickly whipped around and destroyed the locks encasing the box. She bucked the chest open with her horns and reached in with her front left paw. When she pulled out her leg, a shining gold dragon armor gauntlet now coated it with a green diamond sparkling in the center. The gauntlet covered her entire leg, including her paw and talons. She flexed her talons around and clenched her paw into a fist and suddenly the gem began glowing brightly. Pure, vibrant energy crackled and danced around her paw, causing Gennady and his friends to shirk back in shock.

"Huh… interesting little light spectacle." Kaiser chimed in. "What's the point?"

"This is the prototype for the Xerd Energy Gauntlet!" Terra responded, beaming with a sense of pride. "It converts the magic stored in this gem to pure, _raw_ energy that I can manipulate through sheer force and command it to do as I please!" She cackled gleefully.

"Seriously? Sounds wicked!" Hydrous excitedly exclaimed. "I bet we could wipe the floor with the purple if we had a bunch of those."

"Don't get your hopes up." Sebastian sneered. "It's a prototype, remember? Besides, it's not like _you_ can afford a Xerd Industries invention anyway." He scoffed, flicking his paw in the air nonchalantly.

"Are you saying I'm some poor little runt? I've got gems!" Hydrous grumbled in an irritated tone. "My parents have pretty well paying jobs crafting armor, thank you very much."

"But you're not _really_ up there in the social hierarchy." Sebastian rebuked with a smirk. Gennady cleared his throat causing the earth and water dragons to go silent and bow their heads apologetically.

"Pft, big whoop." Gennady sneered. "I don't see what the point of some stupid little piece of armor is." Terra's eyes flashed and a smirk tugged at her cheeks. She spun around gracefully and pointed her paw at Gennady. The ice dragon raised a curious eyebrow. A ball of rainbow energy pulsated around her paw and shot out toward Gennady at blinding speed. The big bad blue brute hollered as he got slammed into the wall with tremendous force. "Fuck! What was that for?" He snarled as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"A demonstration, silly," Terra stated in her oh-so sweet and innocent tone of voice. "You can look forward to seeing me use it in the battle this afternoon." She adjusted the gauntlet and looked out the window toward the Warfang Academy Arena that towered above the school in the background. "You're going down, Thundra!"

**Created, Written, & Edited by BestNotes**

**Next time: Episode 6 – The First Duel ~ Terra vs. Thundra!**


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